Fifty to 60 years ago, when today’s older farmers were growing up, there were many more bobolinks, eastern meadowlarks and Henslow’s sparrows in northern Illinois.
The disappearance of pastureland and the decline in hay fields accounts for the sharp decline in the grassland bird populations.
John Strauser, a farm researcher, studied livestock grazing when he was in graduate school at the University of Illinois. Strauser told The Center Square that grazing cattle and dairy herds on pastureland restores habitat that the birds need.
“Cattle grazing and dairy-cow pasturing create desirable habitat conditions for various kinds of birds,” Strauser said in his graduate school study Returning Marginal Lands to Forage Production.
Birds need a complex landscape that has short grasses and long grasses and different species and different fauna and flora, Strauser said.
Farmers are aware of the disappearing numbers of birds, and they are enthusiastic about doing what they can, he said. Strauser has found that farmers are open to discussing the benefits of grazing and foraging.
Read more here.
Related: “Bison grazing for grassland bird habitat,” “Grant helps fund Bison grazing area upgrades”
Editorial note: Would Horizon Farm be a suitable candidate for populating a small quantity of bison?
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