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<blockquote data-quote="TheLBLman" data-source="post: 4429950" data-attributes="member: 1409"><p>Believe you're on to something.</p><p></p><p>IMO, with the turkeys population declines, it is no one thing.</p><p>Just like with quail declines, it is many things.</p><p></p><p>But if I had to isolate the single biggest contributor to quail declines, it would be the mass elimination of our native grasses.</p><p>In many cases, these natives grasses have been replaced with fescue and Johnson grass (both of which have near zero value to quail and most wildlife). But maybe even worse it the replacement of native and non-native grasses with simply bare dirt, from "clean" farming techniques.</p><p></p><p>In big ag areas, it may be the single biggest contributor to declines of both quail and turkey populations are clean farming practices, whereby bare dirt replaces the cover, and pesticides kill the insects. Yes, there can be value in those agricultural crops, but they typically are not of the better overall value provided by native grasses, especially when most of the crops are harvested with great efficiency, and pesticides reduce the food supply for baby turkeys & quail.</p><p></p><p>You can have great nesting success of quail & turkeys, but if they have few or no insects to eat, little or no cover to hide from predators,</p><p>they die of starvation or get eaten within a matter of days/weeks of hatching.</p><p></p><p>It may no longer be so much about nesting success as it is about early poult survival.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheLBLman, post: 4429950, member: 1409"] Believe you're on to something. IMO, with the turkeys population declines, it is no one thing. Just like with quail declines, it is many things. But if I had to isolate the single biggest contributor to quail declines, it would be the mass elimination of our native grasses. In many cases, these natives grasses have been replaced with fescue and Johnson grass (both of which have near zero value to quail and most wildlife). But maybe even worse it the replacement of native and non-native grasses with simply bare dirt, from "clean" farming techniques. In big ag areas, it may be the single biggest contributor to declines of both quail and turkey populations are clean farming practices, whereby bare dirt replaces the cover, and pesticides kill the insects. Yes, there can be value in those agricultural crops, but they typically are not of the better overall value provided by native grasses, especially when most of the crops are harvested with great efficiency, and pesticides reduce the food supply for baby turkeys & quail. You can have great nesting success of quail & turkeys, but if they have few or no insects to eat, little or no cover to hide from predators, they die of starvation or get eaten within a matter of days/weeks of hatching. It may no longer be so much about nesting success as it is about early poult survival. [/QUOTE]
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