By JIM FARIS
The Missouri Department of Conservation has put out preliminary numbers for this year's turkey season.
45,475 birds were checked during the three-week season, April 20th to May 10th. Adding in the earlier youth season brings the total up to 50,730.
Nick Oakley, Wild Turkey Biologist with MDC, credits a strong carryover from 2023 and a healthy hatching 2024 with the high turkey count.
2025's turkey total was a bit higher, at 51,011 overall.
The top counties were Macon (979), Callaway (926), and Franklin (879). Local counties were toward the bottom of the list- Buchanan (134), Andrew (160), and Nodaway (183) were all in the bottom 15 of Missouri's 114 counties.