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Photo by P.J. Perea |
Turkey Gold Chufa: Turkeys dig it
Depending on the terrain, a wild turkey’s home range can be a few hundred to several thousand acres. For many landowners that means turkeys frequent their properties but don’t necessarily stay. Or maybe they only appear during certain times of the year.
Wild turkeys prefer different habitat in the fall and winter compared to spring and summer. Much of these preferences are associated with the availability of food.
Acorn and soft mast are major food sources for wild turkeys in fall and winter. But when the acorns disappear, flocks move to better food sources. This is when having a mature stand of chufa can pay big dividends.
Chufa Primer
Chufa is a hardy plant that grows well throughout the Southeast. It grows best in sandy or loamy soil, which allows the chufa root system to expand freely and makes it easier for wild turkeys to dig up the chufa tubers. However, chufa has been grown in clay fields with excellent results.
The general rule is chufa can grow anywhere corn can grow, and has many of the same planting requirements. For example, chufa needs about 90 days of frost-free weather to mature, so it’s best to plant it between May and July, and perhaps on into August in some areas.
Much like corn, chufa needs full sunlight. Chufa patches should be large enough to receive at least 75 percent of the sun throughout the day.
Chufa plots should be at least an acre, but generally not exceeding five acres in one field.
Weed Out
Control weeds as early as possible when planting chufa. Disk the field several weeks prior to planting and allow weeds to re-emerge. Once the weeds are six inches out of the ground, hit them hard with a non-selective herbicide like Round-Up, with an active ingredient of glyphosate. Allow the weeds to turn brown and disk again to create a clean, smooth seedbed for planting, which will allow for better seed-to-soil contact, resulting in a solid stand of chufa.
Bird-nip
Serious turkey hunters know chufa is a great management tool for keeping wild turkeys on their property. Wild turkeys respond to chufa like cats to catnip. Once discovered, a chufa plot will look like a small-scale bombing campaign took place — small craters scattered with feathers, droppings, tracks and other wild turkey signs. Set up game cameras on field edges to capture images of what the spring season may hold for you. — Greg Boozer, NWTF wildlife biologist