CHAPTER IV: WILDLIFE HABITATS FOR MISSISSIPPI’S SGCN,
THREATS AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS^116Mississippi. The amount and type of herbaceous cover will depend on many factors including field
usage, crop types and frequency of agricultural treatments. The Natural Resources Conservation Service
estimates that 55 percent of Mississippi’s farmland is cropland and produces such commodities as
cereal, beans, cotton, vegetables and oil seed. Cereal crops include corn, sorghum, and winter wheat.
LOCATION, SIZE, CONDITION AND CONSERVATION STATUS
EGCP, UEGCP, MSRAP
Most of the upland areas of the state that were of suitable soil type and slope
were farmed at one time. Many of the more productive areas continue to be
farmed. Croplands are the dominant land use in the Mississippi Delta, a region
of approximately five million acres, where 85 percent of the bottomland forests
were cleared for farming. The blackland prairie region also supports large farm
communities, while other regions with steeper terrain and less suitable soil have
smaller farming districts generally restricted to alluvial lands of rivers and
gentle topographic relief. Croplands encompass approximately 18 percent of
land area of Mississippi.
Although modern agriculture techniques, chemicals and fertilizers increase crop yields, they generally
reduce the availability of cover and food sources for wildlife. “Clean” farming practices are somewhat
detrimental to wildlife because there is very little byproduct for food or cover. Areas such as field
edges, weedy patches and wet areas remain attractive to some wildlife species. If fields are left vacant
after harvest, the fields temporarily provide sources of food for wildlife, which scavenge for weed seeds
and unharvested grains.
Some farmers enhance the attractiveness of their fields by setting aside patches of unharvested crops for
wildlife, or maintain fields in early succession by disking sod bound fields to manage for bobwhite quail
and mourning dove. Quail, which are in considerable decline, are dependent on the availability of open
fields that insure ample cover and seed production from annual grasses and forbs. Agriculture fields
surrounding the Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge are often used by the Mississippi sandhill
crane in the winter and spring seasons. Urban/suburban expansion into these agriculture lands has
reduced their availability to cranes as foraging habitat.
Agriculture fields are common and widespread in the state and are unlikely to show any significant
decline in acreage, but some farming techniques are reducing the quality of these lands for wildlife.
2.6 Agriculture
Range of
Agriculture Fields