Originally Posted by CNC
Originally Posted by Mbrock

Never said it wasn’t worth paying attention to, but I seriously doubt the percent of SOM has anything to do with turkey absence, presence, or nest success.


Carbon is the first link in the chain…..its what drives the soil food web…..which produces all the soil critters the turkeys like to scratch for….worms, grubs, snails, crickets, grasshoppers, etc..etc……..The amount of carbon in the soil dictates the amount of life in the soil. It also dictates which plants will grow and which wont…..As you move from 1% organic matter in the soil to 6% organic matter the species composition changes……You pick up a lot more diversity and get more beneficial seed producers and flowering pollinators which draw in more insects…..All this turkey food that is being produced is being driven by carbon at the base level…….


I think you are making the assumption that food quality is a limiting factor for turkey populations, and I seriously doubt that it is true in Alabama. It is for deer, and you can tell by the body weights and other things that deer are a lot healthier in some parts of the state vs others, and I think there is validity to your soil ideas when talking about deer.

I don't think it limits turkeys at all. I have killed big, healthy, 20+ pound gobblers on some of the worst soil in the state on the old Coosa wma. I've killed others on some of the best soils in the Blackbelt that looked exactly the same. I don't think poor quality food plots will affect the health of turkeys. If they aren't happy, they will just go somewhere else.

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.