Turkey

The tom carries a ‘wattle’ – a skin flap down the neck; below this is the carbuncle. These change colour during courtship. Turkey meat is eaten year round in the US and is the traditional dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Breast meat is 70% of the carcass value and 73% of carcass yield followed by thigh meat (13%). Breast meat has only 1% fat. Turkeys are much more difficult to farm than broiler chickens, especially in the early stages. Toms can reach 20 kg in 22 weeks and hens 10 kg in 10 weeks. Slaughter weight will depend on end use (table, restaurant or further processing) and in the US the meat is very competitively priced. Toms have now so much breast meat that they are unable to mate. The hens are artificially inseminated. Fast growth and focus on breast meat, has placed pressure on legs which have not developed as rapidly as lean growth; consequently skeletal disorders, especially tibial dyschondroplasia (in the leg bone), are seen, although there are other contributing factors related particularly to nutrition such as insufficient vitamin D3.

Only about 45 – 60 poults are produced from each hen annually. Very early mortality can be high and may be related to hatchery hygiene, resulting in yolk sac and navel infection and refusal to eat and/or drink. Although there are several breeds, the white feathered hybrid is now commonly used in an industry dominated globally by two breeding companies with 75% of market share.

The Turkey Industry in Australia

In Australia, there are few remaining reliable small hatcheries which provide day-old turkey poults to backyard poultry keepers, while the larger hatcheries supply contract growers. Competition for the small Australian turkey market is very vigorous, with two very large vertically integrated producers (enterprises covering multiple steps of production within the one company, for example a company owning breeder farms, hatcheries and growing farms) and a number of small family operations producing for available outlets. The main commercial turkey used in Australia is the hybrid white bird. For large commercial hatcheries these birds are the progeny of specially selected male and female parent stock. The males are chosen for their body conformation and fast growth rate; the females are chosen for their egg-production ability, lack of broodiness and growth rate.

The steps of commercial turkey meat production are similar in principle to those of commercial chicken meat production. Information on the commercial chicken meat production can be found under breeding chickens, breeder farm sequence and meat chicken farm sequence.

Information on breeding and keeping of turkeys for small backyard producers can be found at The PoultrySite, which contains an article written by Gerry Bolla, NSW Agriculture Livestock Officer (Poultry).

The industry generates over $200 m/year from almost 5 million birds processed. The Australasian Turkey Federation has over 20 members. There are three main producers: Inghams Enterprises dominates the market with, on average, 46,000 turkeys processed per week (60 to 65% of market share). The other two account for 15,000 and 10,000/week. At least one large producer has no breeding flocks and purchases eggs for incubation. The large producers have contract growers. In addition, there are several small producers, all of whom grow their own birds. There are five dedicated processing plants and about six that process turkeys and chickens. White, hybrid turkeys are used almost exclusively and, as elsewhere, artificial insemination is practised rather than natural mating. A hen may lay over 100 eggs/year but fewer than 90 poults will probably survive to processing weight from these eggs. Birds are held on separate breeder farms, each farm holding up to 7,000 hens. These layers are in flocks of up to 3,000. Broiler sheds, typically 4 to 5 on large farms, each hold 8,000 to 14.000 growing birds. Straw, wood shavings and sawdust are the bedding materials used. These are normally changed at the end of each batch.

Free range turkeys, commanding a premium price, are produced on a few small farms. One has Maremmas (Italian sheepdogs) as guard dogs. Some producers claim to have organically–grown turkeys but it is now difficult to obtain organically–grown feedstuffs and to conform to other requirements.

Rainbow Valley Turkeys, a major grower, produces about 650,000 turkey eggs/year. Many of these are sold to producers for hatching and some of the poults are purchased by small farmers for growing out. There is a small export market for eggs to Taiwan.

The main challenges in the industry include: environmental control, egg production consistency, brooding of poults, litter management due to caking and aggravated by drinking water spillage.

Demand for whole turkeys is mainly at Christmas and then for the smaller birds of 4.5 – 6.5 kg live weight. For large growers, this may be only 10% of production and mainly hens. For the rest of the year, demand is for further processed products, mainly from heavy toms, such as boned or semi de-boned products. These are cooked half breast, breast slicing roll, frozen breast roast, cooked buffe and thigh roast. Turkey meat, especially whole birds, is expensive in Australia compared to the US where it competes favourably with broiler meat. There are several reasons for this: first, the scale of production, second, seasonal demand, third, the cost of feed, and fourth, cheap labour. Feed contributes over 60% to the production cost, while the cost of raising the poults is about 15%.

Diets are specially formulated and hens are fed ad libitum but toms are usually restricted from 16–18 weeks onwards. From the first 2–3 weeks poults are fed a high protein pre–starter diet, then a starter diet with declining levels of protein but increasing levels of energy in subsequent formulations to killing weight.

Hens are vaccinated against haemorrhagic enteritis, cholera and fowl pox. This affords immunity for the poults, which are normally not on a vaccination program. Blackhead is caused by a protozoan parasite that can be transmitted in drinking water, feed or excreta. It can be prevented by incorporating drugs in the feed.

Marketing

Traditionally, turkeys are bought at Christmas and Easter as big birds, ranging from 2.5 to 5.0 kg plus in size (dressed weight). This requirement is slowly changing as families buy smaller one-meal birds at other times of the year. ‘Further processing’ of turkey portions is enabling the processor to attract a larger share of the consumer’s budget. The consumer can now buy over sixty different cuts of turkey and further processed turkey products such as turkey hams, steaks and sausages (smoked and broiled).