Beef, Brush, and Bobwhites: Quail Management in Cattle Country

Chapter 5. Grazing Management

THE COW is a most powerful habitat management tool. Give it a little salt, supplement, and water, and it manages millions of acres of bobwhite cover. Like any powerful tool, however, it can be harmful or helpful, depending on how it is applied. In this chapter, we give the background ecology of grazing, a discussion on grazing systems, and an overview of research findings on the relations between grazing and bobwhites. Grazing and Plant Communities A plant community is a group of plant species that commonly occur together. “Plant community” is another name for “bobwhite habitat.” Generally, plant communities change in species composition over time in an orderly, more or less predictable manner—like the swing of a pendulum. By human standards, the direction of change can be forward (succession) or backward (retrogression ). The pendulum mode of plant-community change fits best in mesic areas. In arid and semiarid landscapes, plant communities might change in a disorderly , erratic manner. The plant pendulum might even get stuck on an undesirable community from the standpoint of bobwhites and their managers. Understanding the nature of plant-community change in response to grazing and other events forms an important basis for bobwhite habitat management using livestock. Typical Community Changes Plant succession can be thought of as an orderly sequence of kinds of plants that occupy a site after disturbance such as plowing. Some species colonize bare soil. In time, a second group replaces these pioneers, a third replaces the second, and so on. Finally, a dominant community, called the climax community, claims territory and succession ends. Let us plow an acre in a remnant patch of tallgrass prairie near Fort Worth and observe it for 25 years to see succession. The colonizers will be weedy annuals— sunflower, croton, lambsquarters (Chenopodium spp.), Hall’s panicum. You recognize some of these as topnotch quail foods. These plants yield to threeawns, Grazing Management Chapter 5 66 chapter five ragweed, and other perennial grasses and forbs as time passes. At the end of the quarter century, we see the climax of succession: a dense stand of little bluestem with a smattering of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and perennial forbs. Grazing can reverse plant succession. The grasses of virgin prairie are called decreasers because these plants decrease in abundance with long-term grazing by cattle. Cattle prefer them as food. Then the so-called increasers, less palatable grasses and forbs, replace the decreasers. If grazing is too heavy for too long, increasers are replaced by a group of plants called invaders. Some of these are the very weeds that colonized our plowed acre on the Fort Worth prairie. At this point, if you remove or lighten grazing, the plant pendulum should swing back toward the decreasers with the passage of time. The relative amounts of decreasers, increasers, and invaders determine what is called range condition. Condition, in turn, indicates the value of a plant community to bobwhites. The range-condition concept has limitations, has been criticized, and is outdated; however, it provides a simple, basic framework for the management purposes discussed in this book. Bobwhites require a mixture of condition classes. Higher-condition classes provide nesting cover, whereas lower-condition classes provide food. Grazing, properly managed, is the simplest, most economical tool for providing a diversity of cover types, that is, range-condition classes. Figure 5.2. Seacoast bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium var. littorale), a variety of little bluestem, is a decreaser; that is, it declines and often disappears with grazing because cattle like it, which is good for quail. Occasional patches of seacoast bluestem are useful for nesting, but too much indicates range condition is too high. Then food plants will be sparse. (Photograph by Fidel Hernández) Figure 5.3. Range-condition class, dominant types of plants, and their value to bobwhites. Changes in the plant community are based on the “plant pendulum” model of succession. Grazing Management 67 The manager who wants to benefit bobwhites while profiting from cattle may want to target a particular condition class. Recall, however, that the appropriate vegetation stage may vary in relation to the productivity of the site. Fair to good condition may be the proper goal in productive areas—those with deep soil, 30 or more inches of annual rain, and 240 or more frost-free days. Good to excellent condition is proper on areas with poor soils, low rainfall, and short...