Hunting management, cheap and effective. How to provide water.

To achieve the viability of agricultural farms, we must increasingly adjust our efforts and obtain the best possible return on investments. And no potential income, however small, can be refused. In many cases, viability or not, is within a very narrow range and we must be very attentive to move forward with the year.

Income from hunting is generally not a major part of farms, but in general, the worse agronomic conditions we find, the better conditions for hunting. In any case, the income that hunting can generate is not negligible. There are many hunting grounds and many that remain vacant.

For our preserve to be in demand and generate good revenues, it must be managed in the medium and long term, knowing that it must be constant and that some investments must be made, as in any business.

In this series of posts, we are going to give some indications, as a result of our observations in the field and the scientific knowledge that is being generated about hunting and habitat and species management. In general, the measures we will talk about are aimed at small game hunting, which is more difficult to manage than big game, but they are also valid for big game hunting and are positive for all types of fauna.

Water points

In much of Spain, when the month of June comes, water is scarce, and for the most part, it has been scarce a month or two before. So just when it's needed the most, the less available this resource is. The solution is simple, we must provide places where partridges and rabbits can drink. We can approach it with two solutions:

Drums with a sink

A simple, affordable and easy to maintain option. It also has the advantage of allowing easy cleaning and thus ensuring an adequate state of health. As drawbacks, because we will have to replace the water since they cannot be recharged with rainwater, although there are models designed for that purpose, when summer comes, it is inevitable to have to fill them up.

Install small ponds.

This option is also very widespread. Many people believe that partridges prefer this type of water point. We are not going to go into whether this is the case or not, but we can give some tips on how to make the pond.
If the pond requires a lot of maintenance effort, it will end up being unused. As much enthusiasm as you put into building it, in the end what costs a lot of work ends up being abandoned. And if it costs a lot of money to build it, then we probably won't build it, or we'll do a few.

For a pond to be useful, it must hold water for as long as possible. And if it's very hot, it will evaporate quickly. The water will disappear, the faster the larger the exposed surface, what does this mean? What should we do round ponds, square, rectangular or other shapes, lose water sooner than round ones. And we must make them deep, at least 50 cm, so that the water lasts longer and is less expensive to maintain. For partridges to be easily accessible, we must make them conical in shape. In addition, the more the water evaporates, the less exposed surface there will be and therefore the less it will evaporate. And if it can have some shade, all the better. If we think about it, the perfect pond should imitate the washbasins used to give water to cattle, but of a smaller size.

The bottom can be made of ground material, concrete or waterproofed with plastic or other material, that will depend on our budget, but it is advisable to fence, so that cattle or big game do not enter.

A round pond, 2 meters in diameter, with a depth at the bottom of 0.75 cm, can hold 800 liters. As it has an area of 3.14 m2, in an area where it rains 400 l/m2 per year, it can be kept full with rainfall for most of the year. And if it is installed in a place that receives runoff, as was done with livestock washes, it may only be necessary to provide it with some water in summer. Here are some examples of what not to do when building a pond.

Examples of water points

Example of good will and intention. The shade will help it evaporate less, but it can also make the water dirty, a good thing for waterproofing. It lacks fencing and is shallow.

Well built and fenced, but shallow and very elongated. When summer comes it will dry out very quickly. In addition, there are no shelters in the immediate vicinity.

A good waterproofing material and good fencing. The round shape is a great success, but it should be deeper.

Great example of ingenuity. Taking advantage of the runoff, this raft, built on stone and adapted to the terrain, is filled. With little rainfall, it recharges. An example to follow.