Turkey season disappoints slightly

By Chris Patch

Herald-Tribune

The Missouri turkey harvest turned out to be a slight disappointment with 46,314 turkeys checked in the three-week season, falling slightly below predictions.

Statewide harvest numbers were down 4.4 percent from 2007 despite a promising opening day that topped last year by more than 1,000. In Vernon County a total of 568 birds were checked, including the 40 during the youth season.

Missouri conservation agent Shawn Pennington said Vernon County numbers were down roughly 2-3 percent, mostly due to the weather.

"It's kind of what we expected as far as harvest total goes this year," Pennington said. "It's just shy of what we expected, as far as what our biologists predicted. A lot of that has to do with weather. That's the key factor in whether or not our harvest is going to be up or down here in this part of the state particularly."

Bad weather has been a fixture during turkey season in the last couple of years. Cold, rainy or violent weather makes turkey activity less predictable and often leads to a decrease in hunter turnout. Missouri received all of the above.

The northern part of the state was mostly cold while violent weather and floods played havoc with the southern half. Without favorable conditions, the harvest didn't stand a realistic chance of equaling that of 2007.

"Statewide, our numbers are down just a little bit because of the last couple of years during the nesting season the weather has been pretty bad," he said. "We haven't had real good nesting success, so that's the other determining factor as far as overall harvest for the entire season."

Despite the decrease, 2008 was still the 11th largest turkey harvest on record. Missouri research scientist and turkey biologist Tom Dailey said considering the adverse conditions, he was pleased with the season.

"The fact that we still harvested 46,000 birds tells you something about how many turkeys we still have in Missouri," he said. "My hope now is that we will get back to more normal weather so the remaining birds can bring off a good crop of young turkeys."

Vernon County's total was second only to Saint Clair when compared to surrounding counties. Barton and Bates failed to break 400 and Cedar logged 505. Missouri's top county was Franklin with 838, followed by Texas at 801. Franklin and Osage are in the east-central part of Missouri, Texas is in the south-central corridor.