Waterfowl Development & Management ‘How To’ Guide
The first time someone steps onto a new lease or waterfowl property they’ve purchased, the task of waterfowl habitat development and management can be daunting. Where to begin and how to go about completing these projects is something that takes time, planning and patience. Most of us can’t do all the projects that we would like to complete in one year. I’ve found myself disappointed and overwhelmed when I realize how much my waterfowl projects will cost, but when I step back and start to zero in on potential solutions, I find more cost-effective ways to complete these projects.
There are steps we can take to make nearly any sized property a waterfowl honey hole while still keeping within budget. This series of posts will dive into waterfowl habitat development and management and what I’ve learned from developing and managing my family’s farm. My experience is limited to Southern Arkansas, however many of the same principles apply to various regions across the continent.
Defining Goals & Fiscal Plans
Capital (Development) Expenditures
Let’s say we have an operating budget of $10,000.00 for a farm that we just purchased or a new lease. A lot of work can be done with that amount of cash. More than one would think. However, operating cost can usually be kept low, but initial capital expenditures required to develop a property are where the larger expenses will incur. For instance, we plant rice and manage for moist soil vegetation on beaver ponds/wetlands that we cleared with dozers and excavators. The cost to develop those fields included equipment rentals and flood control structures. Some projects took more time than others, but the average cost to develop was around $600-800 per acre. We’ve added approximately 20 acres in new impoundments for a total cost of $15,000.00. We created a green tree reservoir that adjoins one of the moist soil impoundments that only included the cost of diesel fuel, flood control structures and pipes by using our 100hp tractor’s front-end loader. But obviously, the initial cost of a tractor is where the large expense lies. Therefore, when you decide to start developing land for waterfowl, consider equipment rentals and purchases required, along with the operating cost that will be needed to manage those developed waterfowl impoundments. Size your goals so that they fit within your budget. Prioritize those goals so that you can start with smaller projects that are more cost-effective.
Operating (Management) Costs
Operating cost vary widely depending on how we are managing an impoundment. Unpredictable weather patterns can reduce operating cost significantly one year and increase them the next. Irrigation wells can keep operating cost down some years by providing a reliable water source, therefore reducing crop failure and the need for replanting, but initial development cost can be steep, not to mention diesel fuel and repairs. PTO relift pumps are another option for some individuals. Although, these can put lots of extra hours on tractors and they only work where an accessible water source is relatively close. Electric wells are a great option if feasible and keep operating cost down when compared to diesel pumps, but again, initial capital expenditures can be high.
Managing moist soil can be one of the most cost-effective ways to manage for waterfowl on your lease or property. Planting crops can be quite expensive when considering the cost of seed, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide, and irrigation. Our rice plantings average $275/acre and we farm 30 acres putting our annual planting expenses at roughly $8,000.00/year. We try to manage for moist soil in some of our units, but slow drawdowns do not always result in desirable moist soil vegetation. Numerous factors are to blame with the primary ones being flooding, weather, and lack of irrigation. The good thing about managing for moist soil is that you can always replant millet or another early maturing crop if your moist soil drawdowns or crops fail. If we had irrigation wells, we could make our moist soil units work every season, but without complete control of the hydrology, managing for moist soil can be hit or miss some years. To keep within our annual budget, our plan is to start drilling wells on our fields every year or two as we progress through development phases, spreading our expenditures over several fiscal years. For the time being, we are willing to spend more in operating cost, taking the risk of a rice crop failure and replanting millet as a ‘Plan B’ in late August.
Record Keeping
Keeping accurate records of your development cost is important as well. These capital expenditures can be deducted if you lease or sell your land. We record all our recreational development capital expenditures on our partnership’s books. We write off our larger equipment purchases like the tractor and UTV because of their use in our timber operations. Accurate records help you track your inputs and outputs from the land, ensuring that you’re staying within budget and achieving desired returns. As owners of recreational land, we must decide how much of this money we are willing to spend in the name of conservation and recreation versus how much we can spend to maximize a return on our investment. A balance can be attained, however it is dependent on your personal goals and budget. It’s a little different story for people who are leasing tracts, but keeping accurate financial records to stay within budget of the club or individual is still important.
With all of this in mind, we can see how beneficial it is to define your goals and fiscal plans before undertaking any projects on your lease or new property. Without clear goals and objectives, we don’t know what we are trying to achieve and without a fiscal plan, we can exceed our financial threshold reducing desired returns, making a new property more of a liability than an asset. After a set of prioritized goals is defined with a fiscal plan, we can move onto executing and achieving those goals.
In the next post, we will cover the ins and outs of managing waterfowl habitat and how we can attract waterfowl by creating a wetland complex.