Pastured Turkey Meat Raising Tips

[Geena]

This was one of them before and after on processing day (18 weeks). We were contemplating saving them for Christmas, but he got beaten up by his two cohorts that week - you can see some bruising on his head and damage to his left middle toe - so we went ahead and processed before any serious damage was done.

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Turkeys sure like to fight don't they? LOL
I'm far from an expert on turkeys, but that doesn't look like the BBWs I had. By that age they had big thick legs set very wide apart, as you see with a cornishX.
Here's one of mine at 8 weeks. I'll post some processed pictures later.

 

[Geena]

We cooked up the smallest one for Thanksgiving. Notice the difference in size and shape. The breasts alone were 10 lbs each on these boys.

 

[shedinator]

We cooked up the smallest one for Thanksgiving. Notice the difference in size and shape. The breasts alone were 10 lbs each on these boys.
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Interesting. Looking at the pictures side by side I'm wondering if you're on to something, since your 8-week-old had wider set legs than our full grown boys.

I've read/heard accounts of people raising Cornish X from different hatcheries with identical management practices and significant dressed weight differences. I wonder if the hatchery that supplied these hasn't done as good a job preserving the parent stock genetics. If only I could get the farm to tell me who their hatchery partner was...

 

[ShannonR]

Interesting. Looking at the pictures side by side I'm wondering if you're on to something, since your 8-week-old had wider set legs than our full grown boys.

I've read/heard accounts of people raising Cornish X from different hatcheries with identical management practices and significant dressed weight differences. I wonder if the hatchery that supplied these hasn't done as good a job preserving the parent stock genetics. If only I could get the farm to tell me who their hatchery partner was...

There are different varieties of CornishX though. Jumbos, "slow growers", a couple other types i am forgetting right now. Could be the same for broad breasted turkeys as well, but honestly I have no clue.

 

[shedinator]

There are different varieties of CornishX though. Jumbos, "slow growers", a couple other types i am forgetting right now. Could be the same for broad breasted turkeys as well, but honestly I have no clue.

There are different varieties, but the folks I'm thinking of ordered "standard" CX from 2 different hatcheries and getting pretty different results. Granted, one hatchery might have swapped in jumbos for regulars (they all say they reserve the right to make breed switches), but I think it's more likely that some hatcheries have done a better job of preserving the genetics of their breeding stock than others. We've all seen that with hatchery egg layers that have been bred away from standard and toward production, so it wouldn't surprise me much to find out it's happened on the meat side, too.

 

[ShannonR]

There are different varieties, but the folks I'm thinking of ordered "standard" CX from 2 different hatcheries and getting pretty different results. Granted, one hatchery might have swapped in jumbos for regulars (they all say they reserve the right to make breed switches), but I think it's more likely that some hatcheries have done a better job of preserving the genetics of their breeding stock than others. We've all seen that with hatchery egg layers that have been bred away from standard and toward production, so it wouldn't surprise me much to find out it's happened on the meat side, too.

Hmm. Come to think of it, I have heard reports of some hatcheries' broilers having more leg problems than other hatcheries.