FORT STOCKTON Sherman Hammond owns and operates a 33,000-acre cow-calf operation in the rugged country between Alpine and Fort Stockton, way down in the southwest part of Pecos County.
The place has remained in the family for nearly a century and, through good times and bad, has remained a traditional semi-arid ranching endeavor. But, that may change because Hammond’s true passion is devoted to a diminutive native West Texan, the “blue” (scaled) quail. Today his love of “blue,” as in blue quail, could be interpreted as “green,” as in dollars.
“My wife and I own this outfit, and we’ve done a lot of conservation work over the years that seems to have benefitted our long-term blue quail population,” he said. “We’re real proud of our birds. We think we’ve got more blue quail than any other ranch out here in the Trans-Pecos area of West Texas.”
That’s a pretty bold statement coming from a rancher who is still trying to shake off the effects of a seven-year drought.
“We sold 300 mother cows last year when it was so bad,” Hammond said. “We’re down to 200 animal units (cows and young calves) on 52 sections (square miles). I’ve got people right now clambering to lease this place just for quail hunting.
“This guy called me yesterday from Houston who’d heard about our quail. We’re looking at $1 an acre. You’re talking about $33,000 a year for a ranch to just hunt quail on. That’s more money than I make off these cows! “Out here agriculturally, the two leading money makers now are blue quail and mule deer. There’s getting to be more interest in blue quail all the time.
“I’ve been leasing my deer hunting to the same company for over 25 years. I’ve never leased the bird hunting, but I’ve got so much pressure on me now that it’s something to sure think about. I get $2,500 for one mule deer buck. I furnish a place for the hunters to stay and a place for them to cook. That’s all. You take the deer money and what I’ve been offered on this quail thing, let me tell you that’s some serious dollars.”
Hammond is a member of Fort Stockton’s Pecos State Bank board. In that role, he reviews the region’s agricultural economic status weekly. What he is seeing, he says, is a growing economic trend favoring the wildlife and recreation business over the region’s traditional livestock industry.
“Of the ranchers that the bank deals with, I don’t know of one that doesn’t cash in on it (hunting) to some degree. Traditional livestock ranching here has been horrible for the past few years. We’re just hoping that maybe it’s going to rain sometime this year.
“There’s not enough cattle left in West Texas now for a good barbecue. Ranchers are down to nearly no livestock, and they’re not going to go back in until it does rain. Prices are so high now that it would be hard to restock even if it does start raining.”
Unfortunately, time may be running out for the area’s latest cash cow. Blue quail numbers like those of its cousin, the bobwhite, have dropped dramatically in recent years. Hammond said the region’s quail population has suffered in the last 20 years, and the future for the region is uncertain.
Several big ranches near his spread, he said, have no quail at all. “I’m a big supporter of the Quail Decline Initiative,” he continued. “We need to open peoples’ eyes to what’s happening. There’s not going to be any quail if we don’t get something done.”
The initiative, a proposal before the state legislature by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, would appropriate $3.7 million to support education and research related to the loss of quail and associated grass land birds in Texas.
Bird losses have hit an alarming rate in the last decade, said Dr. Dale Rollins, Extension wildlife specialist in San Angelo. Some key states today harbor only a remnant population of wild bobwhite quail, he said, adding that if the current trend continues, those too are expected to be gone by 2005.
“Fortunately, Texas remains the wild quail stronghold, though numbers have dropped dramatically here in recent years,” he said.
According to annual U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surveys, Rollins said, quail populations statewide have declined 5 percent each year since 1981; they have declined as much as 10 percent a year in East Texas.
“We’ve had several of these Quail Appreciation Days (put on by the Extension Service),” Hammond said. “We’ll have 100 landowners out here in one day to listen in on what they can do to enhance their quail populations. Some of them take heed and some of them don’t, but I still think we need to do everything we can to get the word out so people know what’s going on.
“Last fall was a good example of what some research might have prevented. I had a big die-off right here on this place. I can call it to the day — Oct. 9. We had cold rain and ice, it even killed our barn swallows. I had probably 750 blue quail right here at the headquarters. Since that spell, it’s a miracle if I see 30 or 40. There’s just no quail. I’ve talked to people all the way from Big Spring to Black Gap. That same (episode) killed all their birds. The same thing happened in 1983, and it took a long time for these places to recover.
“Some places like my neighbors never did. It would have been helpful if we could find through research a way to help the birds before something like this happens.”
Despite weathering die-offs and drought, Hammond has a lot of quail for his area. He credits his success to years spent developing his ranch’s quail habitat. He has 27 dirt tanks of all sizes that he maintains as water sites. He also has 40 water troughs scattered over the ranch that he allows to overflow slightly. This makes a safe place for the birds to water.
The slight runoff also creates a micro wetland habitat conducive to producing the insect life he feels is essential for top quail production. He is also a firm believer in quail food plots.
“I discovered food plot development by accident,” he said. “We were trying to keep runoff water from going straight down our ranch roads. We were diverting the water by stealing a little dirt from the pasture to build a little hump in the road. I started noticing that everywhere we were stealing that dirt, the resulting ‘divots’ would be full of native grasses in three or four years. We now intentionally do this all over the ranch. We literally have thousands of them now.
“In my mind, good habitat is a major key to saving quail, and good quail habitat is a combination of a lot of things. We sure don’t know all the answers, but with quail about the only thing able to return a dollar an acre on this droughted-out country, I’d sure like to find out.”
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