Missouri Turkey Harvest Down, Again.

[Valley Station]

Missouri turkey harvest was down, again this spring. 3rd year in a row.
2007 Spring Harvest -48,476 birds -12% fewer than 2006

2004-60,151 birds
2005-57,692
2006-54,712
2007-48,476

[Multidigits]

Anybody in Mo. hitting the panic button yet?

[turk2di]

10 days into the season & people were hittin the panic button here. Many just don't understand the cycles. Next season will b just the opposite, we will bounce right back up.

[UKturkeyhunter]

Why panic here or in MO? So the harversts were down, maybe there were less hunters out since the weather was crappy (both here and in MO). I cannot speak for the whole state of MO, but the area I am originally from (Callaway County) is LOADED with turkeys. All my friends who hunt killed one bird this year and I know that two tagged out. I would not panic about low harvest numbers unless I knew a little something about how many hunters actually went hunting.

[vabirddog]

10 days into the season & people were hittin the panic button here. Many just don't understand the cycles. Next season will b just the opposite, we will bounce right back up.

Maybe thats what the people in Missouri thought?

[UKturkeyhunter]

I am not trying to start anything, but I have hunted MO for a few years and could not remember the harvest breaking 60,000 birds. I looked on the Missouri Department of Conservation's website and these are the numbers they are reporting. I could not find 2007 data, but these are fairly consistent with ups and downs.

2006 - 51018
2005 - 53,798
2004 - 56,882
2003 - 54,761
2002 - 53,932
2001 - 55,302
2000 - 56,841
1999 - 50,338
1998 - 48,323
1997 - 33,044

[vabirddog]

Ukturkeyhunter, Yes I'd say those are very consistant #s . Stable populations at capacity maybe?

[UKturkeyhunter]

Ukturkeyhunter, Yes I'd say those are very consistant #s . Stable populations at capacity maybe?

Sounds like a good argument to me. There is a MDC report on hen to poult ratios (a study which I was a volunteer counter) that is showing 1.2 poults per hen. I can't remember a lot of the specifics, but this is considerably lower than the "historical" average of 2.6 (I think) poults per hen. I think that the low number was attributed to a couple of bad hatches, although during the last year I participated I remember several broods with more than four poults per hen in late summer.

I do not think that there much to worry about turkey populations here or in Missouri. I saw/heard/worked several birds this year. Of course, I'm not a biologist so I could be wrong.

[Willie]

The IDNR turkey biologist told me that the Indiana 2005 was the worst hatch ever since they started keeping records of it.

He said that 2006 was better, but not by much.

I look for the Indiana harvest to be down considerably too.

It seems that most birds that we have registered in the contest we are having at hunting-indiana.com was older birds and jakes.

[Valley Station]

UKturkeyhunter,
The Missouri turkey harvest numbers you have listed are for the general spring season and do not have the Youth Spring Season harvest numbers included.
The total spring harvest for 2004 was listed as 60,151 birds, a state record harvest.

[UKturkeyhunter]

UKturkeyhunter,
The Missouri turkey harvest numbers you have listed are for the general spring season and do not have the Youth Spring Season harvest numbers included.
The total spring harvest for 2004 was listed as 60,151 birds, a state record harvest.

Again, I am not at all wanting to come off like I am trying to start an argument. Where are you getting your numbers? I could easily be wrong (and I'm ok with that), but I added the youth harvest to the regular harvest and came up with:

Numbers are from the MDC webpage

2006 - 54,712
2005 - 57,692
2004 - 58,019
2003 - 58,421 (First year of youth season).

I would agree that the harvest numbers are declining, but there are probably a lot of factors to consider, hatches, number of hunters afield, maybe even fall kills. Either way, the numbers are interesting.

[Valley Station]

UKturkeyhunter,
For Missouri Turkey Harvest Summary, 1997 thru 2006
www.mdc.mo.gov/hunt/turkey/turkeysum/
Select year, click on Spring Season-end of season and Spring Youth Hunt for total spring harvest.
Totals for 2004 was 56,882 + 3258 = 60,140 birds

The 2007 Spring Harvest has been down for most states in this region- Mo., Ky, Tenn, Ind. No real surprises, all had reported poor turkey reproduction for 2005 and 2006 .