Kenneth J. Reinecke

Grain sorghum provides energy-rich seeds for waterfowl and may provide important alternative foraging habitat considering a noted decrease of waste agricultural seeds for wintering waterfowl in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. We conducted experiments in 22 sorghum fields in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana during falls 2006-2007 to evaluate abundance of ratoon grain (i.e., post-harvest, second crop), waste grain from the harvested first crop, and natural seeds. Nitrogen fertilized plots in 2007 produced >4 times more ratoon grain (x- = 219.57 ± 39.65 [SE] kg (dry)/ha) than other...

Rice seeds escaping collection by combines during harvest (hereafter, waste rice) provide quality forage for migrating and wintering waterfowl in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) and other rice growing regions in the United States. Recent sample surveys across the MAV have revealed abundance of waste rice in fields declined an average of 71% between harvest and late autumn. Thus, we evaluated the ability of common post-harvest, field-management practices to conserve waste rice for waterfowl until early winter via controlled experiments in Mississippi rice test plots in 2001 and...