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FARMTOFIELD

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And surrounding counties Turkey populations have grown this year as they seem to have the last couple. And whatever happened to them in 2004 never happens again here or anywhere else. Id still like to know for sure but i don't think ill get a 100% answer.
 
Rockhound said:
And surrounding counties Turkey populations have grown this year as they seem to have the last couple. And whatever happened to them in 2004 never happens again here or anywhere else. Id still like to know for sure but i don't think ill get a 100% answer.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, there isn't a 100% answer. There is some research going on that we hope will give us an idea on what might be happening in some of the southern mid-TN counties.
 
scn said:
Rockhound said:
And surrounding counties Turkey populations have grown this year as they seem to have the last couple. And whatever happened to them in 2004 never happens again here or anywhere else. Id still like to know for sure but i don't think ill get a 100% answer.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, there isn't a 100% answer. There is some research going on that we hope will give us an idea on what might be happening in some of the southern mid-TN counties.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply scn and i was in no way throwing a slur towards twra, its not yalls fault. Ive tried to have discussions with people over the last couple years and all i hear is the limits and such. Mostly coming from people that have not experienced the decline i speak of.

It has not been gradual here at all we had droves of birds, gobblers everywhere and huge fall flocks, to a point that everyone county wide was wandering WTH has happened and this all occurred in one year maybe 2. Back around 2003 or 2004 the best i remember
 
Rockhound said:
scn said:
Rockhound said:
And surrounding counties Turkey populations have grown this year as they seem to have the last couple. And whatever happened to them in 2004 never happens again here or anywhere else. Id still like to know for sure but i don't think ill get a 100% answer.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, there isn't a 100% answer. There is some research going on that we hope will give us an idea on what might be happening in some of the southern mid-TN counties.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply scn and i was in no way throwing a slur towards twra, its not yalls fault. Ive tried to have discussions with people over the last couple years and all i hear is the limits and such. Mostly coming from people that have not experienced the decline i speak of.

It has not been gradual here at all we had droves of birds, gobblers everywhere and huge fall flocks, to a point that everyone county wide was wandering WTH has happened and this all occurred in one year maybe 2. Back around 2003 or 2004 the best i remember
Click to expand...

I certainly didn't take it as a slur. Declines in turkey populations are taking place in several states. It is my understanding that Arkansas is down enough that they drastically cut their limits.

From looking at kill data, it is hard to see where limits are having that big of an effect. To me, it looks like a disease or reproductive rate deal. But, state agencies across the southeast and midwest are aware and are researching the issue. Hopefully they can figure it out.

It is encouraging to hear that things may be getting better.
 
Yea it is encouraging, i hear more gobblers in my end of the county last year than i have combined in 6 or 7 years. The sad thing is it was 3 but i did see two hens with poults last year.
 
could it be the predator populations going up? like the coyotes, bob cats seem like I see more and more of them. I know the obviously hunt and kill and eat turkeys, but do you think they are the ones putting in such a dent in the population. also the big flood we had back in 2010 I believe that's the year well I know at our farm 2011 the numbers were down because I think a lot of eggs got washed away and just got ruined. but it seems it I back to normal or better then normal sense 2011 on all of our farms.
 
Its been since'04 here so i would think in 9 years they could recoup purty good from bad hatch. Im only about an hour or so south of you dh10 its bad im telling you its bad. Honestly back then i could ride you around in the fall and count 500 turkeys in bottoms within 2 miles of my house and such and then in it was like something killed 95% of the population at once. If i could remember to count i bet i haven't seen 50 turkeys in those same bottoms and such in 7 years. Sure we have coyotes but no more than anywhere else and thats alot of turkeys to kill in a matter of a year or
ear and a half. Ive run 7 trail cameras since for a looooong time and the last predator ive had on cam was a pair of coyote LAST February.
 
wow that's crazy I have a buddy that lives down there and he says the same thing about to turkeys. its crazy! and sure does suck for yal.
 
My FIL has been seeing turkeys pretty regularly on his farm near 5 Points and a buddy says he's been seeing more at his place near Iron City. I haven't killed one on either place, ever. So, it would be nice to see them start to come back.

I've heard but can't prove (I don't have first hand knowledge, so I probably shouldn't post) that they were researching to see if the chicken mature farmers were spreading may have been causing some sort of liver disease. It's been a couple years since we talked about it and I'm not sure if this was ever confirmed or found to be false.

My FIL used to spread chicken manure on his fields and it wasn't uncommon to see 10+ coyotes in a morning running around sucking up dead chicken parts and pieces like a vacuum. Man, I used to kill alot of coyotes back then.
 
I think that Giles county has been down too the past about ten years.
I have not lived or hunted TN all my life, but I do remember 10 years ago it wasn't nothing to ride through giles county and see birds everywhere. Now that I own land in Giles county there just isn't the birds anymore.
It just aint the same.
 
I have never hunted Lawrence county, but I have hunted Wayne a few times, Marshall a few times, and hunt in Lincoln alot. Out of these counties it seems that Lincoln is the best one.
 
deerhunter10 said:
I don't think giles is down tons of birds atleast where we have farms at.
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Our land and all the acreage around it that I know of for several miles is terrible.
Pulaski and North is where all the birds are.

For people to say that Tennessee has booming turkey populations need to come to where I have hunted. We do not see such.
 
It seems like its the southern portions mainly, curious whos your bud that owns land in iron city? I live about 5 min. From there and kin to most everyone lol
 
Rockhound said:
deerhunter10 said:
I don't think giles is down tons of birds atleast where we have farms at.
Click to expand...

I definitely don't see the numbers in giles that i use to
Click to expand...

It aint the same. I haven't hunted from one end of the state to the other, but I have hunted alot in the middle/southern counties. IMO Lincoln is the best and I have not noticed any decline in turkey population.
Also, IMO, I used to think anywhere in Giles Co. was unbeatable for turkey hunting. But I would say in the past 7-10 years it has been below average, especially south of Pulaski.
 
It is hard to remember that far back for me, but it seems that we have had very wet April/Mays during those years minus last April/may when it was a drought. I wonder if so much heavy rain for those several years in a row is what has done it?
 
woodsman87 said:
deerhunter10 said:
I don't think giles is down tons of birds atleast where we have farms at.
Click to expand...

Our land and all the acreage around it that I know of for several miles is terrible.
Pulaski and North is where all the birds are.

For people to say that Tennessee has booming turkey populations need to come to where I have hunted. We do not see such.
Click to expand...

our farm is on the maury county giles county farm, and like I said we see a ton of birds. but I guess I kinda jumped the gun, I have never hunted deep into giles for birds.
 
Id like to go back to the numbers the area I hunt had back around 10 years ago. Definitely more of a challenge now to just find a bird. I did see good poult numbers last year though.
 

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