Tennessee Farmer Creates Top-Notch Turkey Habitat While Improving Grazing Lands

When it comes to understanding and improving turkey habitat restoration, there are few more knowledgeable than farmer Chuck Borum in Pulaski, Tennessee. Borum bought a few hundred acres a decade ago with the intent of raising cattle, but with time, he saw how he could also establish top-notch turkey habitat. “Initially, we only had a few turkeys on the farm, and before we knew it, we had a whole slew of them because the programs we had with NRCS helped us establish a safer habitat for them to prosper,” Borum said. Borum used NRCS’ Environmental Quality Initiatives Program (EQIP) to improve his grazing operation by installing water structures and lines for his livestock and fields. The program enabled him to establish field borders too, which happen to provide excellent habitat for turkeys. Predators are Borum’s biggest challenge. Foxes, reintroduced red wolves, bobcats, and even possum (who steal turkey eggs) are a constant threat to the habitat. But because of drastic improvements in his natural barriers and fencing, it’s much easier to keep up with the predators, and more importantly, keep them out altogether. He started with 4-strand barbed wire. Late he discovered that 7-strand high tensile fencing worked much  better for keeping predators out and cattle in. “EQIP has helped me more than any other