Keeping Turkey

Biggest thing is to leave that bush hog at home

That cool day in May or June and you want to go jump on that tractor. Don’t

Grown up roads and grown up food plots are some of the best things there are for poults especially in industrial timberlands where there isn’t much for them to eat

The advice about the bushog is good. And that relates to deer the same as turkeys. Bushhogging promotes grasses. Disking and burning promote weeds and forbs.

The good news is that the same practices which benefit turkeys also benefit deer, rabbits, quail, butterfies, honey bees, songbirds, etc.

Plant food plots. Go clover wherever you can. Keep as much open ground as you can. Let it grow into heavy cover with weeds and vines. Then burn or disk every 2-3 years. Disk roads and turn rows. If you have a border between hardwoods and pines, thin it back so sunlight hits the ground. Then disk those openings as often as possible. Burn the pines whenever possible. Manage the timber aggressively to keep the timber thin with lots of sunlight reaching the forest floor. (I understand it's a lease and you aren't responsible for the timber).

But in general those are the things that will help your turkey population. Big clearcuts are bad. Closed canopy mature timber is bad. Lots of edge habitat, openings, borders, transition zones, and sunlight. Those are the keys.

And: 1300 acres is absolutely big enough to have resident turkeys that will stay on your property and flourish with the right habitat.

Tall grass and grains. Thats what any large, land-based bird will feed on year round and use as cover.


Winter wheat and Bahia. Open fields with wood lines and easy accessible trees.

Sounds like a good spot for turkeys

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Chufa

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NWTF pimped out chufa back in the day like it was some type of magic plant For every successful chufa planting k know of, at least 5 failed and failed miserably whether it be pigs or just the wrong conditions to grow it. It’s also very expensive. It’s a very good crop for attracting turkeys to kill but one of the best things for poults are your deer food plots The rye and wheat and clover that’s there right now is providing the thing needed most right now and that is insects

Never ever ever ever ever plant Bahia grass unless you only want a cow pasture

Recommending Bahia for wildlife purposes is negligent and borderline criminal

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I planted it a few yrs ago and they didn't dig up the 1st plant. They would eat some of the ones that I would dig up but none of the others.

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That's because if it's new to them, they don't know that the nut is even down there. It takes a few years of them training on it before they learn to eat it.

That being said, Chufa is not a particularly valuable food source. When I was growing up, it was all the rage over in AL. All the big landowners planted it. Now I don't know of anyone who does. The hogs being the biggest issue.

The argument was that Chufa was a replacement for acorns. So lots of people tried in in Lower Alabama pine barrens that basically had little or no acorn production. But eventually they figured out that turkeys don't need it. And you can create the same effect by just planting a few oak trees around your food plots and letting some natural oaks grow up in your SMZs.

It's funny to think about all the misinformation that surrounded wildlife management 30 years ago. And inevitably, some things we are doing now will be looked at as crazy and ignorant by our grandkids.

Chufa isn’t good for anything but Turkey also right? I thought I remember that being a big issue, is most people preferred to plant something for deer and turkey.