The turkey hatch is down this fall and could provide a challenge for turkey hunters.
The low turkey hatch is because of the lack of young birds called poults. The poult to hen ratio is 25 percent lower than the previous five year average.
Missouri Department of Conservation turkey biologist Jason Isabelle says the production usually correlates to weather, but this year is different.
“Generally if it was a warmer and drier spring and summer you tended to have better production, and a wetter and cooler spring and summer you tended to have poorer production,” Isabelle said. “In the case of this year though, a lot of the state was in a drought for the summer so it was really dry and really warm, the type of conditions we would expect for a good hatch, and nonetheless we didn’t.”
MDC is looking at weather variables, landscape components and other trends to understand the decline in turkey production.
Isabelle’s advice for turkey hunters is find the acorns. They are the preferred food for wild turkeys.