Dilemma

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have a small field right next to my house at my farm that you could say I’ve managed for quail, 3 acres. Birds definitely use it, but to what extent I can’t confidently say. I will hear them in there in the summer and just for fun. I’ve walked in and flushed them occasionally. With that said I have been wanting to do a little personal dove field and I just picked up a new planter. I’d like to try. To me it felt like it was getting real matted with grass so a reset might not be the worst thing in the world. I started mowing it on Sunday with the intention of spraying it in a month or so, and then coming back with millet and Milo for my Dove field. Well, after one pass, I ran up a group of about 10 quail in there. I went around one more time and saw them again and just couldn’t bring myself to keep going. My Farmer will be planting corn this spring and I have definitely seen birds using the corn adjacent to this field. If I still really wanted a dove field, should I just wait until that corn gets big enough and they can start transitioning to it or should I scrap the idea altogether? I have a good bit of ditches that break up my fields and edges they used. Saw a pair in the ditch Sunday. So they won’t be without any habitat and surely they would use this millet and milo?

 

[Telemark]

Is it just grass, or are there shrubs in it?

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I am just getting into quail habitat so I won't have a very helpful response. Are they mostly cool or warm-season grasses? That might help point in the direction of management. If the quail are already using it, it can't be too bad and could maybe just be improved.
Maybe burning in the fall would knock the warm-season grasses back a bit. Otherwise, if it is some cool-season grasses, you could burn soon as they are greening up.

I have had pretty good luck with a local pheasants forever biologist in Missouri. They are fairly responsive and a wealth of knowledge.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Quail are cooler than doves, so I'd manage for quail. It sounds like that field might need a reset though if undesired grasses are taking over.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Basically this stuff in the background

 

[Double Creek]

If it were me and I really wanted to hunt doves there, I would split into 1/3rds and just plant either a 1-acre field or several smaller strips and I would rotate that around each year. Then again, it really depends on how big of a dove hunt you are wanting. You can't really hunt more than a couple people on one acre IMO.

 

[Telemark]

If you mow and spray a third of it and plant it in millet, milo, and sunflower, it should be great quail habitat in the fall when the corn is harvested and the quail need somewhere to hang out in cover. Plus you get a dove plot. It should do everything you want it to do.