Something anecdotal has crossed my mind.

[AT Hiker]

Outside of my cattle and hardwood hunting areas, winter wheat has usually been a major player in the ag world.

I have been out of the agriculture industry for a while but I know for certain winter wheat production has decreased in the areas I hunt. Both my KY hunt area and the river bottom areas I hunt in Montgomery County. LBL bottom ground hasn't been in wheat, and honestly cannot remember if it ever was a major fall/winter crop.
I cannot speak on Ft Campbell other than it used to be a wheat producing area, 20 years ago.
Dickson, Houston, Montgomery and Stewart County uplands used to have, what appeared anyways, a bunch of tobacco fields that had a winter wheat cover crop. Those are gone.

 

[megalomaniac]

On my farms leased out for ag, I specify they must be planted in a cover crop over winter. But around my farms, in general there is more ag overall compared to the mid 90s. Neighboring fallow fields being converted into row crop probably has not helped nesting success.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Increased in my area primarily due to greater adoption of cover cropping practices. Are you thinking this may have some implication with the turkeys?

 

[AT Hiker]

Increased in my area primarily due to greater adoption of cover cropping practices. Are you thinking this may have some implication with the turkeys?

Yes. Actually, modern agriculture in general but wheat seems to be the noticeable difference.
Speaking specifically of wheat, its production is down nationwide. We are by no means in a major production area of it but I'm curious if the lack of it in some areas are correlated with decreased populations. Anecdotal for me it is. I used to have access to production across the state so I dont know if it's actually down as much as it seems or if there is an obvious relation with Turkey production.

I just remember during the hay day of turkeys in my area, wheat was everywhere. It provided excellent brooding, fall/winter nutrition and good predator protection. Even hunter predators only had a smallish window to hunt wheat fields until they became too tall to hunt.

What got me really thinking was listening to a biologist in NW Kansas talking about it. It was more of an overall discussion with practices in his area and more focused on deer but turkeys got brought into it.

 

[Wrangler95]

Most farmers in my county at least 30 years ago grew burley tobacco and all planted a winter wheat cover crop on the tobacco patches,now tobacco farmers are gone and so have cover crops!!

 

[AT Hiker]

I'll paraphrase a bit here but, "habitat is more than natural habitat, agriculture habitat is something we shouldn't over look".

 

[TheLBLman]

I'm curious if the lack of it in some areas are correlated with decreased populations.

Seems logical that there could be a correlation.

In most of Stewart Co. (at least the portion west of the Cumberland River) there has never been significant row cropping nor winter wheat production. Turkey population in central Stewart are a fraction what they were years ago, and quail are almost totally extinct now. Whatever happened to the quail, my fear is it's happening to the turkey. Don't think this has anything whatsoever to do with winter wheat production (at least here).

Things are a little different on the east side of the Cumberland (closer to Montgomery County) mainly due to better soils. Very noticeable difference in deer antlers being on average larger for same age classes on the east side of Cumberland, so I suspect turkey production may also be with the better soils and more row-crop ag, plus more winter wheat there.

One more thing.
It seems the government has been subsidizing and promoting more corn production. This increase in corn might be contributing to a decrease in wheat production (nationwide)?

 

[REN]

One big thing on places I hunt is they no longer plow to plant. Spray it then no plow drill it. Started that about 5 years ago

 

[deerhunter10]

Most farmers are planting wheat more due to the market rather then just a cover crop. Follow the prices and it has production generally follows. Also depends on their rotation and acres between corn and beans. A lot aren't planting it just for a cover crop anymore. Ours has stayed somewhat consistent. I personally don't think the planting if wheat has much to do with turkeys. Especially if it's a cover crop because they are just going to spray it the same time as any other field. A bigger factor is farmers forced to plant fields they never would have before or cut hay off of they would never before because of the development side of things and loosing acres. Also the cattle market while decent at the moment stayed in the tank for years and a lot of cattle farms have leased out to crop production.
No til farming has made farming these places possible honestly.

Death by a thousand cuts.

 

[poorhunter]

I'd be very surprised if winter wheat fields had much of an impact, population wise, on wild turkey. I'd also be surprised if there was a significant difference in winter wheat acres planted now versus 5-10 years ago. The decline of the wild turkey is too widespread, in too many states, in all kinds of habitats. Something else is at play. I really don't know, and certainly there are lots of things at play in the decline, but something is happening, on a large scale, that is affecting brooding success for turkeys. I do not buy into the nest raider/habitat loss/coyote/raptor theories. While these all do take out turkeys, they have always been the major players, and they are not suddenly decimating turkeys. Of all those, the raptor theory has the most possibility, but I just don't think it to be the major reason. Same with the quail…as far as I have read about it, habitat loss due to the change in farming practices is given the blame for the demise of quail. I say horse-hockey to that. There's so much great habitat for quail all over this state. Especially compared to where I used to lived in southern Indiana, but I had quail around me there. Not like when I was a kid mind you, but there wasn't nearly a tenth of good quail habitat there as where I live here for quail. It's been a lot of years (30+) since I was involved with wildlife research, so I know I'm not in the know anymore, but there just seems to be something else going on.

 

[Bone Collector]

I put increased, but it may be the same. I see it yearly, but I cannot say it has stayed the same or decreased. Seems in general the amount of crops have increased in that if there is a field seems something is planted on it. I noticed a lot of winter wheat the other day.

 

[Boll Weevil]

This will be the first full year of aerial seeding wheat and crimson clover on all my bottomground. Something I've noticed (anecdotal as well) is the degree to which the turkeys have stayed put all winter. Except for ground that flooded a few days at a time the birds just never moved to higher ground as they sometimes did in years past.

 

[AT Hiker]

This will be the first full year of aerial seeding wheat and crimson clover on all my bottomground. Something I've noticed (anecdotal as well) is the degree to which the turkeys have stayed put all winter. Except for ground that flooded a few days at a time the birds just never moved to higher ground as they sometimes did in years past.

Wheat is a highly palatable and high protein late fall/winter food source for turkeys, right?

 

[Boll Weevil]

Wheat is a highly palatable and high protein late fall/winter food source for turkeys, right?

Correct. And as temps warm, wheat holds insects and the poults can navigate easily while the hen watches for danger. And then there's grain produced...they'll eat that too.

 

[AT Hiker]

Correct. And as temps warm, wheat holds insects and the poults can navigate easily while the hen watches for danger. And then there's grain produced...they'll eat that too.

I've heard wheat described as being almost a wind barrier for predators as well. Take corn for instance, predators can catch a wind current and follow the scent to their prey. Wheat; scent doesn't travel as well and as direct.

 

[poorhunter]

Correct. And as temps warm, wheat holds insects and the poults can navigate easily while the hen watches for danger. And then there's grain produced...they'll eat that too.

I had a small food plot that went almost untouched by the deer, wheat oats and clover. That next summer I had a beautiful field of mature wheat and oats that when the local turkey family found it they ate every grain off the heads. It was fun to watch as this plot was off the side of my yard!