Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea)-dominated fields provide poor northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) brood rearing habitat. Burning, disking, and herbicide applications have been recommended to improve bobwhite habitat within fescue-dominated fields. We implemented fall burning, fall disking, spring burning, spring disking, spring herbicide application, summer burning, and summer disking in fescue-dominated fields on 4 wildlife management areas across Kentucky. We sampled invertebrate populations and vegetative structure in summers 1992 and 1993 to determine if bobwhite brood rearing habitat quality was improved. We considered forb-dominated fields with high plant species richness, high invertebrate populations, and sufficient bare ground as providing the best brood rearing habitat. Fall disked plots provided significantly greater invertebrate abundance (¯x = 2199.4 ± 331.5; p ≤ 0.05) than control plots (¯x = 824.0 ± 264.5) in 1992. In 1993, herbicide treated plots had greater invertebrate abundance (¯x = 1126.8 ± 229.5; p ≤ 0.05) than control plots (¯x = 327.3 ± 63.2). Plant species richness (¯x = 12.8 ± 1.2), forb coverage (¯x = 70.2 ± 12.5%), and bare ground (¯x = 48.5 ± 8.2%) were significantly greater (p ≤ 0.05) on fall disked plots in 1992 than on control plots. In 1993, herbicide treated plots had greater (p ≤ 0.05) plant species richness (¯x = 14.1 ± 1.4), forb coverage (¯x = 59.3 ± 12.0%), and bare ground (¯x = 41.0 ± 10.2%) than control plots. Fall disked plots provided the best bobwhite brood rearing habitat in 1992, while herbicide treated plots provided the best habitat in 1993.
