The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is urging farmers to leave some of their fields untilled this fall to provide valuable food and cover resources for area wildlife. According to Todd Bogenschutz, DNR wildlife research biologist, fall tillage practices, even reduced tillage methods, can eliminate winter food and cover. He says, “Studies of harvested, untilled crop fields show wildlife consume 55 to 85 percent of the waste corn and soybeans between fall harvest and the following spring.” He added, “The corn stubble and stalks remaining in untilled cornfields also provide concealment for pheasants, quail and partridge, so the birds are not exposed to predators when feeding in the winter.”
