WIJDW - 4/23/2024 19:16

Well, not unusual to be an anomaly with opinion, but have lots of turkeys in the back fields and don't have significant damage. Planting green, they will try nesting in the fields, usually after the crop is in and I don't see much damage and can consistently have good yields of both corn and beans even back in the timber fields.
When it rains me out, will sometimes go out with my landowners tag to shoot a Tom. Pretty easy to do and the breast meat is good if you debone it and put in crock pot after being cubed up. My usual hunt was like last Saturday. Got out early while very dark, get close to where they often roost, knowing where they like to land, and headed back home shortly after sunrise with a 20 some pounder. Right at sunrise, 2 toms, 3 Jakes and 2 hens were close after landing. Couldn't find my call (big deal), don't have a decoy, etc. lol. Good friend went out opening day a few days earlier and had a very similar hunt in the same exact place.
Gotta laugh on an earlier post that said deer and turkey don't like to be in the same field. In the fall, if you're deer hunting, if the turkeys come out, the deer then feel much more comfortable to show themselves as the sharp eyes of the turkeys don't miss much. I've got video of 50 some turkeys and 20 some deer including a big buck in a 3 acre field surrounded with timber during gun season. There was a smaller buck occasionally chasing the turkeys around. Was pretty much a 3 ring circus. Bucks sparring, multiple toms strutting around even in the fall, all kinds of chasing around going on.
Turkeys either have no sense of smell or a very bad one, so I always question the reports that say they go right down a row picking out seed. Might be rodents, just saying. No doubt they might go right down the row once a crop is up and pull out some, but question them digging out much seed before that. Do sometimes get some minor damage with seed from rodents/moles around ditch edges mostly.
If you don't like turkeys or deer damage, then don't allow shooting of coyotes or bobcats imo. In general, turkey pops down trending lately from many area reports. Eagles can make them field shy, especially if you have an Eagle nest close. They can learn to hunt live turkeys also.