Besides something hard to grow like chufa, what is the best food plot plant for turkeys. I'm leaning toward Imperial Whitetail Clover. Any other suggestions?
Food Plots for Turkeys
- Thread starter Spurhunter
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Clover is my bet for overall ease and attractant for turkey and deer.
megalomaniac
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We have crimson clover as part of a mix in all our foodplots in south MS... Turkeys seem to really like the plots and the bugs they attract.
Turkeys use my white clover plots yr round.
A good clover mix like Crimson, Arrowleaf & Landino is just about as close as you can come to a year round food source for deer, turkey & rabbits.
Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
Agree with others; clover is really really hard to beat.
I wouldn't recommend smallish soybean plots if you have high deer densities or specifically for turkeys but if you have any rowcrop beans, leave a little here and there. They'll absolutely hold birds during the winter and into spring.
I wouldn't recommend smallish soybean plots if you have high deer densities or specifically for turkeys but if you have any rowcrop beans, leave a little here and there. They'll absolutely hold birds during the winter and into spring.
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
I doubt y'all are familiar in Tennessee with WMS deer magnet out of Alabama, but we planted it last year where it has about 5-7 different clover species. It was night and day the usage we got from our turkeys.
Bgoodman30
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I think crimson clover is excellent for turkeys. Also provides good brooding cover.
The turkeys absolutely hammered my clover this fall. I hope they like it as much this spring.
I do.
Yes
catman529
Well-Known Member
a significant number of turkeys I've killed have clover in the crop. I'd plant clover. They love to eat it and the flowers attract bugs that they also love to eat.
Popcorn
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^^^this^^^
I tilled and planted mine 2 years ago. I'm hoping we get another snow here soon and plan to sow more then or the next big frost if I can make it out there.
mike52
Well-Known Member
Turkeys being turkeys may stumble across your food plot, will maybe stay a couple of days. BUT turkeys are not territorial like deer. The ones you see today or yesterday may be 3 miles away tomorrow. So forget the ideal that you can keep turkeys in a food plot. THE TURKEYS WILL GO WHERE THE BOSS HEN SAYS
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
True... but the boss hen is going to be 500y from good nesting habitat and good brood habitat (the ones that choose poor nesting and brood sites don't end up being boss hens... they end up being coyote food). And a small food plot is EXCELLENT brood habitat... and edges of a plot can be EXCELLENT nesting habitat if managed properly.
While all of our 20 food plots here on my south MS lease don't host a nesting hen, about 5 to 6 do annually. And while the toms don't stay on 1 plot throughout the year, they ALL hit at least one or more of the plots at some point during the spring. Making an effort to provide habitat diversity in the form of supplemental food plots is going to benefit the birds, lead to increased poult survival, increased population, and therefore more hunting opportunities.
On my private lease in south MS, I've only killed a third of my birds on the plots (almost all following hens foraging), but the plots keep birds in the area so I can kill toms in the hardwood drains between plots as well (our plots are about 400 to 500y apart... and make up about 8 ac out of the 1000 ac property).
In front of heavy rain will work too, even this time of year. Did it last year the first week of March & worked great.
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Turkeys have stayed in our clover plots for past 20 years. Hens stay year round, probably 80-125 right now. Gobblers shift every fall about 4 miles away, but they always come back in spring as we have the girls!
Just calibrate all your equipment before you start
My main food plot has been a turkey magnet the 5 years I've had the property. No matter what I planted. I don't know if it's the area, the habitat around it, or the plot itself, but they love it.
Preach it UDR Jr.!
