Trees and Wildlife - It's a Good Combination

摘要

If you ask Jim Hughes of Lauderdale County what type of farming he does, his response is "trees and wildlife." That has not always been the case, however. "I was raised on a farm, but I did not want to farm," says Hughes. Hughes was in the cattle business for 20 years. The transition from cattle to trees and wildlife was gradual. "I did not want to go out and spend a lot of money on equipment to farm a small acreage. I started looking at practices that would benefit trees and wildlife," he states. Installation of field borders was his first experience with a practice that enhanced wildlife habitat. "When I was raising cattle, I was growing hay and sometimes corn. I noticed that about 15 to 20 feet from the tree line, the hay or corn just did not grow. So, I got into field borders to keep from spending money trying to grow something in the shade where the trees sucked all the moisture out of the ground. For some reason, sericea and partridge peas do fine up against those trees." The sericea and partridge peas were an enhancement for wildlife habitat, and thus began Hughes' experience with the benefits of buffers.