Baiting Turkeys???

[Rabbit Runner]

I have a question for you guys. I know baiting turkeys with corn is illegal, but I know a few people who put out a round bale of wheat hay and hunt over it. Would that be considered baiting if there are no cows on the property vs. cows on the prop.
Just wondering.

[skin_dog1]

That doesn't sound like a normal agricultural process to me so in my book it's baiting.

[turk2di]

Sounds like a slick trick that needs 2b looked into.

[Multidigits]

I ain't seen turkeys eat straw before. Wheat straw doesn't have any seed in it. If it's got seeds, they are likely added in and that would be baiting.

As for putting out a round bale, I can't see any value to aid in the hunt other than it drawing some bugs for the turkeys to eat, and I wouldn't call that baiting.

[fireduck]

I seen exactly what he is talking about. I hunt a dairy farm and the farmer round bale about 10 acres of wheat that was not combined. The next spring most of the bales were still there and the turkeys looked like cattle eating the seed. You couldn't say it was baiting becuase there was probably 50 bales still in the field.

[jeff-ward]

if you let wheat mature it does have seed, i know because i raise it myself and i feed it to my pen raised birds in the winter,..peacocks,ducks,geese, quail, chicken, and yes......turkey..

[gobbl4me]

IMO if someone puts out a bale of hay on a property where there are no livestock or no chance of putting livestock there in that field then it should be considered baiting. why else would it be there? Unless they put the hay in a ditch to help control erosion we have done that before with some old moldy hay we had.

[4onaside]

I killed one last Friday that had a crop full of fresh corn kernels. There is not a corn field within 10 miles, and even it there were, the waste corn, if there was any still available, would not have been that fresh. Looks like someone in my vicinity is doing a no-no.

[nwest]

My nieghbor rolls his hay out to feed his cattle, once the bugs get out in fyull force the birds will flock in to pick them out. But back to the question, I would say yes.

[wkyduckslayer]

Yeah its baiting, but if you are hunting a field with cattle then it might be baiting too, Why would cows want to eat hay now. Unless you got to many in your property and they dont have enough food in forages. Most cattle farms have stopped feeding hay because fescue the main grass here is a cool season grass and the ground only has to be 68 degrees for it to grow. I havent had to feed any hay in threee weeks!

[fireduck]

if you let wheat mature it does have seed, i know because i raise it myself and i feed it to my pen raised birds in the winter,..peacocks,ducks,geese, quail, chicken, and yes......turkey..
If wheat does not have any seed why would farmers combine it. The Dairy thats on our hunt club saves some of his wheat he combine for cover crop.

[WBBP]

Rolled bales of wheat straw will still have some wheat seeds. the combine never gets it all.

K

[maxcam]

Ever shot doves over a wheat field.........Those strips that are left make mighty good table fare for turkeys even this time of the year......

[Rabbit Runner]

It does have seed. It was mature wheat that was cover crop on tobacco fields. It was rolled and never combined so it still has all of the seed and it attracts turkeys better than corn. I know of two instances where people are using it. One with cows and one without.

[CSS archer]

If it's not being fed to cattle and it was not grown in that field or being kept in a storage area, it's baiting.

[keith meador]

i would consider it baiting. rolled wheat straw that did not have the seed harvested is a great draw for turkeys, however it would be illegal if it is not actively being fed to livestock.