Good

Well, I encouraged funding it, so I am for a definitive answer to what you already "know". For instance, I know if I feed in a trough feeder, I will see a lot of coons there. What neither you nor I know is does the population increase or is there simply a "draw" from surrounding properties to an easy food source. If there is an increase in the predator population, at what feeder density does it start to occur? If there is a population increase does it depend on the season feeding occurs? Is there a difference in nest and/or poult survival on fed/unfed sites and, if there is, does it depend on feeding density? What is the rate of consumption of aflatoxin tainted corn at feeders by sex-age class and time of year? Anyone can speculate in these answers but no-one can tell me definitively......because there has been NO study to look at it. This study also proposes to monitor gobbling on these sites to see if there are differences and in following years, the study would trap predators to see how that would affect nest and poult survival. On this, again, I assume I know but a solid study would prove my speculation.

I hope they also monitor crop fields, ie. corn fields. Do they act the same as feeding during season only or more like year round feeding or no correlation?

gobbler , adding a food source will help/hurt different critters , all in how you look at it .


i got no problem with funding the study or doing it . it'll give data to point at on paper .

i figure some collage kids will do the leg work and write about it and get a grade , its all good .

be ok with me if they broke it up in different studies . narrow the focus might get better data .

I wonder how they're going to come up with an amount of corn to feed per square mile? ......I would think that would have pretty significant impacts.....Are we going to dispense 1 ton of corn per square mile during deer season or 10 tons??.....I wonder what the average feeding rate is that's occurring amongst hunters?.....This is basically going to determine how much we're "fattening them up" which should impact reproductive rates

nope , wont work that way . difference in , what affect it is having and what affect it could have . might be better to research a place under normal feeding during a year(s) then remove all feeding see what happens . or , feed in a place that has never had feed

further they get away from what is normal the screwed up the research will be . its needs to be done in a way that does not guarantee a out come .


if that makes scenes . lol

I don't know about other clubs, but I would think 1 ton a year would be insignificant. Our club feeds WAY more than that.

The real question will follow the research. IF it's determined that the "corning scenario" we currently are under does negatively impact turkey populations - for whatever reason, is the wild turkey going to be able to put the brakes on the baiting industry and special interests? Will the political and economic backing baiting has now bow to benefit the 2nd favorite hunted species in the state?

That will be a study all to itself...

That's the question........How much are we going to call "normal"??

And that explains why the AL dcnr would not fund a project like this. There are some questions they don't want anyone to ask.

They will be using varying feeder densities (from 1/25 - 1/100 ac) and feed 50 lb corn/feeder/week in each. So at a rate of one feeder/25 acres and 50 lb/week it would equate to .64 tons/week/sq mile. A survey in south Carolina indicated that across the state, an average of 350 lb/week/sq mile was occurring during winter.

That is the double edged sword of research. Do the research so the information is known. Let those who "make the rules" decide how to use it. You might see some researchers lobbying for things like season changes or lower limits for instance based on their research. A good research scientist just collects the data and publishes it. Thats it!

If nest survival and hatch rate percentages have been roughly the same for years, then what do they think they’re gonna prove/disprove with this study? Seems like the study from poult to adulthood survival will be more beneficial. Can’t wait for that one to complete and the info dispensed.

Agreed

We don't know if nest survival and hatch rates in alabama have been the same since there hasn't been any studies in AL on that for years. They can get a handle on whether feeding affects these factors while finding out what the baseline nest and brood survival is. I do agree that knowing what goes on between hatching and inclusion into the adult population would be HUGE.

Would probably need to conduct the experiments on properties with average deer density as well.....I could see the data being skewed if it were conducted on super high density quail plantation land and that info used to represent everyone else...... The higher the deer population the less the coons will get....and vice versa

I'm sure they get it figured out and go from there


Any amount of corn will cause some impact . More corn bigger the impact.


When I was running two spin feeders I was putting out (all I could) about 8 gallons of corn a day. Wasn't nothing left for coons hardly. Course I thinned out the coons during squirrel season.


Cutting timber is what done it my turkey hunting

And more had taken their place from surrounding properties by the time nesting started.

I heard, I believe on the Turkey Science podcast, them talking about how the rates haven’t changed over time. They were referencing more recent studies. My have been referencing studies in adjacent states.