A new program will pay for half the cost of forage seed in an effort to en-courage producers to seed land to hay or pasture to attract waterfowl.
The forage incentive program from Ducks Unlimited Canada and Crop Production Services will pay for up to $100 per 50 pound bag of Proven Seed forage varieties to encourage producers to seed part of their fields to forage.
In exchange, growers commit to keeping the land in perennial cover for 10 years and agree not to drain the wetlands.
“The linkage between forage crops, such as alfalfa and other perennial grasses, and waterfowl productivity is well documented, but often land use decisions can be influenced by commodity prices,” Craig Bishop, Ducks Unlimited’s forage program lead, said in a news release.
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“For growers wanting to convert cultivated land to hay or pasture land, DUC’s forage incentive program eases the economic barriers associated with transitioning cultivated land to perennial cover while also improving nesting habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.”
The forage incentive program is available to producers wanting to plant forages within Ducks Unlimited’s priority delivery areas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They consider all requests but are interested in areas that already have good existing perennial cover and high wetland densities.
“The reason for this is that small islands of perennial cover in cultivated areas act as traps to waterfowl,” Bishop said.
“Birds try to nest in these landscapes but are unsuccessful because there are few wetlands and predators can easily find and destroy nests.”
