As I have mentioned before on this blog wildlife management is a big focus for us here on our homestead/farm. We enjoy seeing wildlife and we truly believe that incorporating wildlife into the homestead is beneficial for both parties. I would like to share with you our biggest investment in wildlife that we have made here in the homestead and how it has worked out.
The first picture is of our perimeter fence on our main farm. We have just under 2.5 miles of perimeter fence on the homestead. Most of the perimeter of our property is surrounded by a creek. What we did was we fenced out between 50 and 250 feet up from the creek. This established what I call our wildlife buffer.
The picture above shows the pasture on the right the fence then the buffer zone on the left. This buffer has created natural wildlife habitat for all kinds of wild animals around our homestead. In total we have about 42 acres set aside on our homestead in this wildlife buffer zone. This has caused an explosion of wildlife on our property. When we purchased the farm over 5 years ago there were a few deer some squirrels, rabbits and other small animals. Since we have established this wildlife buffer we now see deer daily. We have rabbits and squirrels everywhere. We even have started to see wild bobwhite quail move back. This buffer provides natural cover for smaller animals and bedding areas for deer.
It might sound odd that a family trying to make a living off of farming the land would set aside 42 acres for wildlife but what we have found is that with more wildlife around our livestock stay healthier and thrive. The diversity that comes with multiple species of animals all living in harmony on the homestead is truly amazing.
One example of how this buffer zone has made our homestead better is that the squirrels have planted thousands of walnut trees for us.
All these young trees you see in this picture are young walnut trees planted by the squirrels. This past year was the first year they produced any nuts, there wasn’t a lot of nuts on them but some. One way we make money on our farm is from selling walnuts. Now that we have set aside this land for the wildlife they have planted literally 1,000s of walnut trees for us that will produce nuts that we will be able to sell in the future.
This past year we tried fencing in about 5 acres of the buffer zone. Our plan was to in late summer use the goat herd to eat up all the weeds and expose the ground so fresh grass and clover could grow. We did this as a test of 5 of the acres in the buffer. The hope was that if we did this late summer all the nesting birds and baby deer and rabbits would be grown. Then the grasses would grow all late summer and fall. Then in the winter the wild animals would have a 5 acre grassland to graze. It worked perfectly. In the dead of winter the deer and rabbits were out grazing in this 5 acre section.
I hope that this will help to give some fellow homesteaders or farmers some ideas on how we can improve the wildlife habitat on our land. It makes me smile whenever wildlife is thriving on our homestead!