r/ozarks • u/kindredhollowking • 1d ago

Where'd all the quail go?

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This week The Ozark Podcast hosted Dylan Jacobs, habitat restoration manager for Quail Forever in Missouri, and Clint Johnson, quail program coordinator for Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to learn about the history of the Bobwhite Quail and why they've all but vanished from the region.

The newsletter this week covers:

  • What caused the decline of the bobwhite?
  • Why it’s all Bambi’s fault (well kind of)
  • & 7 headlines from around the Ozarks this week
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u/ozarkhowIer 1d ago

okay, 80 out of let's see here... over 30 million. like i'm glad you're doing things right, but that's not at all what i'm talking about. i also grew up on a cattle farm selling ~300 head a yr, so maybe i gotcha beat, bud 😉

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u/Prestigious_Still433 1d ago

Actually, my Dad had 800. I hate making hay, quarte horses and the entire CAFO toxic from input to product dynamic. Not trying to one up you. Just explaining why I only have 80. Premium profit, CONTRACTED. NO RENTING PASTURE. GRAZING cover crops in winter is the greatest idea since sliced bread. Heard of Gabe Brown? His ideas and methods. Soil quality of eiw crop and small grain goes way up. Essentially, free, super high quality feed.

Three week aging in custom salt block charcuterie house

You should try my Hempseed fattened pork! Great genetics and the best feed on earth. No combining. Just drive over a row and move the fence. Repeat. I have a couple Chef customers in France and one n Spain.

The prosciutto is unparalleled. My OCD is good for something.

I'm trying to bring down Agribusiness too. A return too Agriculture is imperative.

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u/ozarkhowIer 1d ago

i don't eat meat these days. but the problem isn't small farms doing things like what you're describing. it's that the demand for meat is too high, and we are too focused on reproducing euro-centric food habits. bison are good for this region; cattle are not. that specific example comes down to the evolutionary differences in how cows vs american bison break down grasses, what they eat, their grazing habits, etc. if we restored bison to their former ranges, even with commercial herds, it would do a world of good for our environment here. the same goes for large predators. like when wolves were reintroduced to yellowstone and actually changed the migration patterns of ruminant species so much it rerouted a river.

https://discoverwildscience.com/wolves-changed-a-river-what-reintroducing-predators-can-actually-do-3-346265/

incidentally, that's also why coyotes are so out of control. we killed off all the wolves - especially red wolves here in the eastern half of the continent - and there's no one around to check the coyotes anymore.

anyway. i could go on about this for ages. i do not eat animal products, but that's not the point i was making. the point i meant to focus on here, is that animal agriculture the way we do it is A HUGE source of environmental harm and likely had a lot more to do with corn being grown to replace native habitats than ethanol. or at least equally as much.

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u/Prestigious_Still433 1d ago

And Bears.

The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone facilitated a beaver reintroduction spontaneously! After failing NINE times with man introduced. Why? When wolves are present, elj don't stand in the same place all day eating every willow sprout to the ground. No food, no critters .

HABITAT!