“Wagner discovered the benefits of creating winter bird habitat by accident. After one wet growing season, his fields were getting badly rutted by machinery. So the farm just plugged up the drains and let a little water sit on the field through the winter…

That year, ducks and geese arrived in abundance.

Ahead of the next growing season, when the farm drained off the water, Wagner found that the soil was ready to be planted. The birds’ feet, along with the movement of the water, had done the same task of mixing and flattening out the soil that his farm team would usually do with heavy machinery…

While Wagner figured out his process through trial and error, research backs it up. A study on Two Brooks Farm in the winter of 2017-18 found that bird droppings were contributing almost a third of recommended nitrogen for rice in the highest instances, likely linked to the sheer number of birds and the compounding effects of repeating the practice over time. On average, researchers estimated that producers using winter field flooding could cut synthetic nitrogen fertilizer by more than 13 percent…

Winter field flooding is a relatively cost-effective proposition for farmers, Baker notes. It takes place in the off-season, and usually doesn’t require much additional infrastructure on top of what a farm already has.”

From Reasons to be Cheerful.