Lesson 6 – Tree Swallows Helping Farmers Fight Pests

 

Presentation Recording

Presenters

Brian and Mary Keeter own and operate Harmony Hills Farm near Leslie, Missouri, where they practice regenerative agriculture and rotational grazing with cattle, chickens, and pigs. They specialize in direct-to-consumer grass-fed beef while developing silvopasture on their farm.

David Winkler was Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University from 1988 through 2019. With dozens of students and colleagues, he studied Tree Swallows breeding in Ithaca, NY, and he led studies of the breeding biology of all the Tree Swallow’s most closely related six species from Alaska to Argentina. He and two of his students authored the species account for the Tree Swallow for the Birds of North America project in 2011.

Learning Objectives

Upon successfully completing this lesson, participants will understand:

• The impact of flies on grazing cattle
• Fly mitigation strategies using the Tree Swallow
• The effect of air temperature on the availability of swallows’ flying insect prey
• How Tree Swallows’ reliance on existing cavities makes them well-suited to using nest boxes on farms

Resources