Missouri’s cow, calf and beef cattle industry - worth almost $1 billion - might have a cost that nobody’s considered yet: habitat loss for countless wild birds, including prairie chickens, quail, and meadowlarks.

Farmers have been planting fescue grass as an affordable crop for their cattle to graze on for many years, but biologists are finding that the grass is becoming an ecological nightmare. Because the grass grows in dense stands, it’s difficult for birds to move through it, and fescue has also been crowding out native grasses and wildflowers that previously provided good food and shelter.

Missouri currently has 17 million acres of fescue pasture, which feeds many of the 13 million beef cows in the state. While the grass often contains a fungus that’s toxic to livestock, the costs incurred so far haven’t been high enough for farmers to switch to a different grazing grass. Hopefully growing public awareness will bring about change before more birds become endangered.

Link.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Habitat Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.