Today we are joined with Jeff Craig and Arkansas Game & Fish Commissions Turkey Program Coordinator Jeremy Wood to talk about the status of turkeys in Arkansas. We took a bunch of commonly asked questions and and discussed them to try and address your concerns.

If you care about having more birds in Arkansas, or most any state in the Eastern’s range, you should tune in!

We've all heard the importance of how access is regarding recreational property and a solid hunting strategy, however, despite the importance we often meet with folks who are hesitant to change or alter what they have been doing for years. "Old habits are hard to break", couldn't be more true when it comes to access for hunting purposes. 

During this episode, we discuss the value of a clean slate or fresh eyes. If you've owned a farm for a while it may be time to shoot holes in your plan if you want to succeed further. With a few recent consulting visits, we provide clear examples of how a fresh start and new roads can be a game changer for success. Quality habitat is critical, but it must be properly placed on a property to see its true value. 

Tune into this week's podcast to hear the tough conversations about planning and execution of sound habitat and hunting strategies. 

 We are reviewing a prescribed fire from three weeks ago. We walk through 3 different sites within the prescribed fire units and discuss exactly what we see. We address if we reach our stated goals or not. 

As you listen along go checkout the photos posted on our social media channels on April 5th, 2023. These photos will guide you through our conversations and the details in which we see them. We discuss the management of fuel loads, the resetting of vegetation, consumption of tree tops from previous logging operations and more. We discuss burning in the timber and glade units. 

We hope you enjoy this collaborative learning effort regarding the prescribed fires completed this year! 

Is it the scale in which they live or perhaps the fact that they don't sport unique antler characteristics? Today's podcast is centered around a 365 day approach to turkey management and what a landowner should do to encourage a turkey factor. 

We break down the four seasons of a year and specifically the foraging habitat and vegetative communities that support that system. Forage is crucial to consider when managing wild turkeys, but also is how to produce more turkeys. So, we spend a healthy amount of time talking about turkey production and the emphasis it should have when trying to make a turkey centric habitat plan. 

If you want more turkeys to frequent your farm, then give this podcast a thorough listen. 

This week we take a deep dive into the details of each farm, each region, and the current status of each vegetation type to devise a plan to maximize that land's value for wildlife. There is literally nothing cookie cutter from these visits. Each parcel has its own limiting factors, and limitations, and layout specifics. These variables are the largest considerations when making a well throughout habitat management plan. 

We hope you learn and enjoy from others during this week's podcast. 

There are many myths, misinformation, and hunting stories that lead the whitetail hunter astray from what is truth. The truth of this matter is more important than what you may think. 

During the podcast we learn just how effective bucks and does are at producing offspring that make it to the fall and are recruited into the herd. You may be shocked to learn that 60% of bucks only replace themselves during their entire lifetime. Sure a lot of fawns are conceived, but not as many as you think make it to a reproductive age, so really, is that big buck truly passing on his "genes"? 15-15% of each recruited fawn is also produced by a 1.5-2.5 year old buck, so "inferior" or younger bucks also contribute to the breeding. 

We need to learn that this complex exchange, survival relationship for whitetail deer is anything we can strongly influence or control. Stay the course, let deer reach maturity and increase the nutrition available on the landscape, this will have the largest impact on antler expression. Period. 

Jeff knows turkey research as well as most anyone we’ve met and is dead set on spreading the truth. Why? The answer is simple, he wants more turkeys on the landscape!

We dove in to see what drives his passion for turkeys and the habitat they depend.
 

This podcast is for you guys who wonder what to do if you can't burn but still want to create disturbance. 

Brood habitat has been identified as the most limiting factor across the landscape for turkeys. We are learning how to create it, but sometimes limiting factors prevent us from doing it exactly by “the book”. With a working knowledge of how things work, often times we are forced to throw the book away and try things outside the box in an attempt to achieve our goals. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all, and sometimes things turn out great, but regardless we gain valuable knowledge. So, sometimes it’s best to weigh out all your options and just do it! 

Dr Marcus Lashley and Dr Will Gulsby have been driving home the point of habitat management for turkeys since rhe launch of their Wild Turkey Science podcast but in this week's episode we're talking predators! We're not talking about what predators do to nests nearly as much as the debate on what trapping and social media may do to hunters in general. Please listen in to hear our perspective on trapping and social media. #Forloveoftheland