The correct camo color and style will depend on where you eventually choose a setup point. If you hide and call in a woodlot, or call from one woodlot to another with open space in between, normal camo patterns will suffice, but if you have no other spot to sit in but in open territory, you have to match the colors surrounding you.

Corn stubble often remains in the spring season in farm country, as persistent foul weather sometimes prevents farmers from plowing those fields. If you hunt along the edge of corn stubble, you'd better match that color. Many waterfowl camo patterns incorporate corn stubble and yellow grasses, and these are thus smart choices for those setting up at such places. Setting up an ambush near a lone tree requires something dark in a tree-bark pattern.

The basic imperative here is to match the color of your hiding place, because hunting in farm country requires all the stealth you can marshal to fool these sharp-eyed turkeys.

Just as important is the correct choice of a shotgun and load. Ten- and 12-gauge shotguns with appropriate turkey loads are the top choices, simply because they pack more pellets and more wallop over a greater distance than do smaller gauges. Some days are different, and you may call a tom in to close range, but that's the rare occasion, not the norm. Most of the time you'll be shooting in the 30-yard-range, or slightly beyond, because gobblers more often than not grow ever more suspicious as they close in on a position from which they hear turkey calls originate.

If you've hunted gobblers before and have seen the sight of their leaving strut accompanied by the quick change of head color from white to red, then you know either that you've either been picked up or, at the very least, that the tom no longer trusts the situation and is about to head for another piece of real estate in a big hurry. When that happens, and if the turkey's within that 30-yard range, you'll want to have enough gun to stop him.

Decoys may help you bring that bird closer. In fact, you'd better have some fakes on the ground if you hope to call in the big birds at all, especially in open-field settings.

Farm hunting conditions differ in many aspects from those in the big woods pursuit of toms, but the most obvious - and thus most crucial - is the fact that turkeys can easily zero in on your calling position. You can hide among trees in big woods and soften your calls to make that tom believe that you're over the next little ridge or around the next point - but not so in farm country. A call in open fields or small woodlots can be pinpointed exactly, and if a tom sees no turkeys making your manufactured versions of his species' sounds, don't expect him to come in.

And more decoys are better than fewer. Boss gobblers are greedy when it comes to females; the more there are in his circle of receptive hens, the better he enjoys life. Two hen decoys will work nicely, but three or four will work better. Place a jake in the mix, and you'll have a bunch of "talking" turkeys that a tom can't resist.

As mentioned earlier, lightweight decoys that move in the wind seem to be a preferred choice at present. Movement adds to the realism you endeavor to achieve with decoys, and that added realism will almost certainly vastly improve your chances of bagging a bird.

Farms can be surprisingly devoid of cover. Modern-day farming uses every available piece of land, leaving no weedy edges or fencerows as part of the landscape. If turkeys live in the small patches of woods near these farms, they'll notice anything out of place in the open land. Fenceposts are a setup choice, but it seems they never fully hide a human body, and a turkey knows that a fat post doesn't fit among skinny ones. Sometimes a small depression in the ground (even a small hole) is a better place for a hunter to set up his ambush. With decoys in place, and knowing the direction from which the tom will approach, lying on the ground is the logical choice. Whatever you settle on had better be comfortable, because you may be in that position for a long time - and it had better be safe (a topic that we'll return to shortly).

To provide summer shade for livestock, farmers often leave solitary trees or small groups of large trees along field edges and in the middle of pastures. These are sensible places to set up with your decoys, especially if you've scouted the turkeys in these areas and know that they pass nearby.

Areas with water, in ponds or lakes or even troughs, can offer other smart setup points if a workable place to hide can be found there. A ditch would be a great place for your hideaway, as would a thick clump of brush, or crop fields already experiencing the growth of spring.

One other possible choice is to sneak into the woods in which the tom that you're hunting roosts - but do so only after he has left the woods. To be successful with this strategy, you'll have to have access to those woods from the side opposite the point at which the tom exited, and you'll have to enter so that you're not detected by your quarry - and you'll have to make all of these movements with safety in mind. But if a tom hears a hen back at the place that he thinks of as his bedroom, he'll more often than not come back home for some fun.

Make the place you choose to call from as easy and soft on your body as circumstance allows. Always keep in mind that you'll have to be still and may have to hold your gun for a long time, and thus have really no margin for error with an approaching tom. Put some serious time into choosing a setup position.

Calling to farm country toms requires the same assortment of yelps, clucks, purrs and cuts you make to their big-woods cousins - you simply have to sound like a turkey or, if you have multiple decoys, like multiple turkeys. If you have a jake in your decoy spread and have mastered the sound of a gobble, you'll be ahead of the game, as a gobbling jake may be what it takes to bring in a mature tom when all other calls fail.

It also helps to be proficient with a diaphragm call. The hand motion required to work a slate or box call is a no-no in farm country, especially as a tom closes in. You'll want to have your gun aimed and be ready to fire when the first opportunity to do so presents itself.