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I think I have some foxtail and a bunch of smartweed in my duck hole. It's a ditch that I can flood to about 90 yards wide and quarter mile long. What can ya'll tell me about these weeds as far as desirability and how to use them best. thanks.

Check out the MDWFP Waterfowl Program website: home.mdwfp.com/waterfowl. Those are good plants, highly desired by ducks.

bulldog wrote:Check out the MDWFP Waterfowl Program website: home.mdwfp.com/waterfowl. Those are good plants, highly desired by ducks.

+1. I'm a forestry student at State-- and actually in a class right now where we're covering wildlife habitat and uses of various plants. Smartweed seeds are an excellent food for ducks...one of the best in terms of non-agricultural. Foxtail is slightly less preferred but still an excellent source of seed for waterfowl. Hope this helps. And if you ever need anyone to come help take care of those ducks eating all your smartweed, let me know...

On the smartweed. Pink blooms=good; White blooms=less desirable
Smartweed is a good source of substrait for inverterbrate species, but isn't at the top of the list for preferred "duck food"
In any event, ducks will use it; but It's not at the top of their list.

Is this duck hole manageable? i.e. can you control time of flooding and depth? can you get into it with a tractor to disturb the soil?

JaMak84 wrote:On the smartweed. Pink blooms=good; White blooms=less desirable
Smartweed is a good source of substrait for inverterbrate species, but isn't at the top of the list for preferred "duck food"
In any event, ducks will use it; but It's not at the top of their list.

Never have heard of this before. Not saying it's completely wrong, but NRCS studies done on moist-soil plants and ag crops show that smartweed seed has one of the highest energy contents of any seed that ducks prefer-- even higher than that of milo or rice (see Wetland Management for Waterfowl Handbook on the MDWFP site). Granted, invertebrates are found in much higher concentration within moist-soil impoundments, and ducks do feed on these, but to say that smartweed is not a good duck food is inaccurate. Ducks will consume foods based on nutrient content and availability-- especially energy content since this is how they keep warm and healthy during the wintertime. Therefore, a seed such as smartweed that is high in energy would be a preferred food source for ducks. In comparison to ag crops such as flooded standing corn, ducks prefer the corn to moist-soil plants because of seed availability. However, duck use of HARVESTED corn fields has been shown to be lower than that of even unmanaged moist soil areas. That said, smartweed is not the "be all, end all" of duck foods, however, for moist-soil plants, it is a preferred feed source.

MSUMDuck I know where your coming from cause I sat in the same class about 5-6 years ago but JaMak is right, there are a lot of differences between textbook and reality that you will only learn with experience.

Here is a picture of why smartweed isnt always good. It can completely dominate duck holes, create floating mats of mud/vegetation that a duck cant even land in much less forage in. It will die after first frost but the dead vegetation will hang around till January unless you knock it down by disc or herbicide late summer/fall.

That is also a picture of dedication. Ole chevy out wading in hip deep water with mocasins and gators

I think this is becoming a little misunderstood here. There's no mistaking that there can be too much of a good thing-- I wasn't disputing that. And from my wording, I can understand where it would sound like I'm only speaking "by the book". In fact, I've worked most of my life managing waterfowl habitat, hunting waterfowl (both for fun and as a guide), and handling weeds/crops (my family farms, so understanding vegetation control has been a part of life). I won't claim to be an expert, but I'm no spring chicken either. In my own experiences, I've killed plenty of ducks in moist-soil areas and ponds that had their throats full of smartweed seed...I just figured that quoting research would validate my point more than "in my opinion..."

btw, Danp is that at noxubee?

And in the same respect, I don't believe Jamak or myself are "downing" smartweed we both promote moist soil mgmt, but we also see a lot of problems caused by dominating vegetation, including smartweed.

This picture was taken on a private brake in humphreys county, we do a good bit of aquatic weed control and this particular hole was to tight get a boat in.

What is smartweed?

They don't sell it in oxford

DanP wrote:And in the same respect, I don't believe Jamak or myself are "downing" smartweed we both promote moist soil mgmt, but we also see a lot of problems caused by dominating vegetation, including smartweed.

This picture was taken on a private brake in humphreys county, we do a good bit of aquatic weed control and this particular hole was to tight get a boat in.

Now we know you don't know what you're talking about. Ain't nothing private in Humphreys!

DanP wrote:They don't sell it in oxford

Nope!


MSUMDUCK,

Listen to these guys! They will help you out if you let em with their experience to further your education. I've actually learned a bunch of good stuff from hanging out with Dan. The sombitch knows some habitat and weeds and such..

Remember ol Mark Twain who said "I've never let my schooling interfere with my education". Good luck with your classes. I have been thinking hard about going back to school at the "cow-college" and doing some sort of Wildlife degree.

Wingman wrote:

DanP wrote:And in the same respect, I don't believe Jamak or myself are "downing" smartweed we both promote moist soil mgmt, but we also see a lot of problems caused by dominating vegetation, including smartweed.

This picture was taken on a private brake in humphreys county, we do a good bit of aquatic weed control and this particular hole was to tight get a boat in.

Now we know you don't know what you're talking about. Ain't nothing private in Humphreys!

Dang I meant Outlaw County

They need some game wardens or something around there