USDA WOLFTOWN – The link between mechanical harvesting and wildlife mortality is one that many farmers would rather not talk about. Zachary Whitman’s goal isn’t just to talk about this link, but to break it.
Whitman, a 45-year-old native of Lamesa, Texas, was confronted with the issue not long after he made a major life change in 2019, leaving Washington, D.C. – where he’d spent 16 years, first working on President George W. Bush’s advance staff and later for lobbying groups – to create an agri-tourism destination on 355 acres of farmland and forest in Virginia’s Madison County, about a two-hour drive away.
One of his first moves was to enter into an agreement with a neighbor that allows the neighbor to grow and cut hay on Whitman’s land in exchange for a fee. Last spring, Whitman decided the arrangement needed to be altered.
“We cut the hay at the usual time,” Whitman recalled, “and our machine killed three fawns and wiped out at least three clutches of wild turkeys. It was awful. I told my neighbor, ‘We’ve got to try something different.’”
At the same time, Whitman was also engaged in finalizing a new conservation agreement with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service under the umbrella of NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which is tailored, in part, to new farmers. Among the practices approved for EQIP is Delayed Haying (Code 511: Forage Harvest Management), which sounded like a possible answer.
“The idea behind delayed haying is that it’s a benefit for wildlife,” said Bella Brush, a soil conservationist at NRCS’ field office in nearby Culpeper. “If you wait to cut the hay until around July 1, any young quail or wild turkeys hatched that spring should be fully fledged and out of the nests. Spring fawns using the hayfield for cover should also be mature enough to sense danger and get out of the way.”
Delayed haying also comes with a downside.
“It’s a trade-off,” Brush admitted. “Once seedheads form on the hay, it’s already lost some of its nutritional value and livestock have to eat more of it to get the same benefits. Delaying the cutting also delays the farmer getting paid for the hay. We offer farmers some compensation for that.”
Whitman opted in. This summer, no hay was cut until July 2. Results were dramatic.
“This year, we didn’t catch up a single young deer or active nest,” Whitman said. “My neighbor did have to wait a little while for his hay, which caused him a curious moment or two, but ultimately no price was paid by him, by me or by the birds and deer.”
Had he been a more traditional farmer, Whitman admits he may not have reached the same decision.
“I get where hay fits into the big picture,” he said. “The hay feeds the cattle and milk and meat from the cattle feed the people. For what I’m doing here, though, a conservationist approach made sense.”
The key to Whitman’s operation, which he’s named the Rooted Land Co., is a venture called Rooted Retreats. The retreats are five small, “tiny house” style cabins he’s built and sited around his property. Renters of the cabins – which were all built using different themes – have their choice between picturesque rural isolation or sampling as much farm life as they care to experience during their stays.
They can fish in the Rapidan River, walk through Whitman’s 200 forested acres, sample eggs laid by the farm’s collection of 17 exotic breeds of chickens and cut flowers from a garden where one variety or another is almost always in bloom. Honey and beehives are coming in 2027. Whitman makes his home in the farmhouse, which is right in the middle of everything.
“I’m about 70 percent innkeeper and 30 percent farmer and forester,” is how Whitman puts it.
NRCS has assisted him, initially with removing invasive plant species and streambank stabilization along the Rapidan.
On one September afternoon, Whitman was looking out over a silent, expansive hayfield that was due to be cut in the next day or two.
“We can’t see or hear them, but there might be as many as 20 deer lying low in that field,” he said. “This is also the first summer I’ve heard quail on the property. Sometimes, there is a better way, and you can find it.”
Original Post by By John Markon, NRCS Virginia Public Affairs.
For more information about NRCS programs in general and delayed haying in particular, contact your local USDA service center.
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