In the past few years, myself along with my brother and life long friend have been purchasing small acreage farms in Grundy and Sullivan counties, with the sole purpose of hunting in mind. One of our farms is only 55 acres and very irregularly shaped. This farm has approximately 20 acres of row crop, 30 acres of pasture, and 5 acres of timber covered draws and ditches. With the pasture consisting of mostly fescue, and the row crop planted right next to the timber, our quail had little, if any woody cover. After hunting our new farm for the first season, we determined only 2 coveys of quail were using our ground, with one covey spending most of its time on our neighbor.

Realizing we wanted to do something to improve our quail hunting, I went looking for help. My search led me to our local conservation department and John Murphy. John is the Private Land Conservationist in our area, and more importantly he was ready and willing to help. After only one meeting with John and a walk on our farm, he left me with more information about quail and their habitat needs than I had learned in 30 years of quail hunting. One of the techniques he suggested trying was edge feathering to create woody cover. By felling trees (in winter) around two areas of our row crop, and letting them grow up the following spring with weeds and grasses, John said the quail would quickly find and start using the new cover. Was he ever right! Soon after we felled the trees (mostly Thorny Locust), we began to see the quail in and around the new cover. Once spring rolled around, many types of weeds and grasses came up through the fallen trees, and the cover began to really take shape, and become thick. Over the course of summer and fall these two areas of edge feathering became the focal point for all types of wildlife in the area. Not only quail were benefiting from the new cover, but rabbits, deer, squirrels and songbirds were using it as well. Not to mention the pheasants that are now being seen on a regular basis. This was without a doubt the easiest and most beneficial practice for improving the hunting on our farm we have ever tried. Best of all, it allows you to remove and use unwanted tree species from your farm while creating beneficial wildlife habitat. As of today, we have completed our two edge feathering projects on this farm and have started many more on our other properties. I can happily report to you fellow quail hunters, that we now have added two coveys of quail to this 55-acre farm, for a total of four coveys. The quail spend all of their time on our farm, and make hunting in our Fields a Dream. Thanks John for all your help! Terry Bush, BDT Farms, LLC