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The Thanksgiving Turkey

© Don De Beyer

The turkey plays an important part during this time of the year. The wild turkey is one of the most recoqnized symbols of Thanksgiving. Although there are still places you can find the wild turkey, your supper will likely have a turkey from a farm.

The turkey industry is larger than most people realize. The top turkey states are North Carolina and Minnesota. The United States produced 283.5 million turkeys in 1998. This represents about 5,280 billion pounds of ready-to-cook turkey. There are more turkeys than people.

A homegrown turkey can be a nice addition to the traditional meal. Raising turkeys, however, is not always easy. They are not overly smart and can have difficulty learning how to eat or drink. Turkeys also like to eat their litter. This can lead to the gizzard's filling up and their eventual death by starvation. A beginner or novice would find growing chickens or other livestock easier. All commercial turkey is of the white, broad-breasted breed. The traditional-looking turkey can be found through very specialized hatcheries such as Murray Mc Murray Hatchery. This may mean ordering from outside your area. The turkey farmer has three potential markets. Light or broiler turkeys are grown to about 5.5 kg in about 11 weeks. Heavy hens are grown to about 7.6 kg in about 14.5-16 weeks. Heavy toms (males) will reach 11.9 kg in about the same time.

Turkeys require clean, warm water and adequate light and space. The barns used for turkeys are similiar to those for chickens and are of the free-range design. Turkeys grow best when not in cages. The feed and watering systems will need to be sturdy. Turkeys are bigger and stronger than chickens. The birds require about four inches of feeder space each and one and a half inches of water space. Each turkey will also need about four square feet of area. You can raise about 200 turkeys per acre.

The turkey is very efficient. It takes 2.8 to 3.0 pounds of feed to produce one pound of gain. To get these results requires proper management and feed. Young turkeys eat feed that is about 28% protein and finish with feed about 16%. They require turkey-specific formulations and cannot be fed chicken feed.

Growing your own turkey makes a nice addition to the Thanksgiving, Easter or Christmas meal. They take more work, planning and management than other animals. However, The result of your hard work will be a great-tasting bird. If you are interested in learning more about growing turkeys you could also read Raising Your Own Turkeys or Market Turkey Management-Brooding. (Acrobat Reader is needed to read Market Turkey Management-Brooding.