This Turkey Tuesday is about keeping wild turkeys on our radar, when our minds are focused on deer. Each fall I post about this, because it’s a topic that continues to be relevant and timely. With fall deer hunting seasons either starting or right around the corner, your mind is likely like mine – focused on antlers and filling the freezer! But now is a good time to still be thinking about turkeys, because things we’re spending time doing to improve our deer hunting can also benefit turkeys. One, many of us are about to plant fall/winter forage plots, but with a little planning, you can optimize the attractiveness of these plots for turkeys while also producing high quality deer forage. For instance, including cereal grains and clovers in planting mixtures produces foraging areas attractive to turkeys from the time they sprout until late spring and into early summer. Two, when you plant fall plots, consider reducing the planting rate just a bit, which will allow native plants to grow as well – this increases plant diversity. Three, instead of disking plots up to the tree lines that surround them, consider leaving a transition zone between the forest and where the forage plot begins – then, come back and disk this area during winter – doing so will stimulate native forbs and legumes that provide forage, cover, and attract insects in spring and summer. Lastly, look at your forage plots from a turkey’s perspective – drop down on a knee and look into the surrounding forest – if you can’t see well into the forest in at least several locations, neither can a turkey. Consider managing vegetation surrounding the plot to make it more open so turkeys can comfortably use the plot and escape danger if it approaches. The take home is, now is a good time to integrate practices into our deer management programs that will benefit wild turkeys in the upcoming months.
Pic by Jim Quinn.
