FEEDING QUESTION

[turksinmaine]

my heritage turkeys, bourbon reds, are 11 months old and was on grower feed 24-28% protein. I plan on growing the meat birds for another 10 months give or take. Is it ok to put them on 18% protein from now until then? finisher feed.
I ask due to a lot of areas give info on this subject but not for ones whom want their birds grown to full maturity, longer than year.

 

[R2elk]

my heritage turkeys, bourbon reds, are 11 months old and was on grower feed 24-28% protein. I plan on growing the meat birds for another 10 months give or take. Is it ok to put them on 18% protein from now until then? finisher feed.
I ask due to a lot of areas give info on this subject but not for ones whom want their birds grown to full maturity, longer than year.

Your turkeys are adults and yes you can definitely go as low as 16% protein for them. Since they are heritage turkeys they are only going to get so big no matter what you feed them. When it is near time for processing there are some companies that make a turkey finisher that you can feed them but it isn't necessary.

I had a Self Blue tom that fed himself without any additional feed from me this past summer and fall and most of the winter and he was so fat it wasn't funny. He was running free in about a 2 acre enclosure and definitely ate a lot of Russian Olives.

Good luck.

 

[turksinmaine]

the 18% is finisher feed, would that still be ok?or should switch? it is 18% crude protein, 4.5% crude fat , and 5% crue fiber..
If that is not ok would this be the proper feed,multi flock breeder? which is pretty much the same except its 3% crude fat and 4% crude fiber. I have my hens and breeder toms on that. but was wondering if the finish feed more proper for the meat birds being slight higher crude fat.
Oh and that sounds amazing for your tom. olives,yum.

 

[R2elk]

the 18% is finisher feed, would that still be ok?or should switch? it is 18% crude protein, 4.5% crude fat , and 5% crue fiber..
If that is not ok would this be the proper feed,multi flock breeder? which is pretty much the same except its 3% crude fat and 4% crude fiber. I have my hens and breeder toms on that. but was wondering if the finish feed more proper for the meat birds being slight higher crude fat.
Oh and that sounds amazing for your tom. olives,yum.

Either is fine as long as you provide oyster shell for the hens. I feed my adult turkeys a 16% protein feed as that is sufficient if it is a quality feed. The 18% protein won't hurt them but really won't make them get any bigger than the 16% feed will. Some people will feed a lot of corn for the final month. It will make the fat a darker yellow.

Good luck.

 

[turksinmaine]

So feeding them finish feed for these next 10 or so months wont affect the quality of the meat of anything? thank you so much for your help.
Oh, was that tom holiday dinner? or you still have him?

 

[R2elk]

So feeding them finish feed for these next 10 or so months wont affect the quality of the meat of anything? thank you so much for your help.
Oh, was that tom holiday dinner? or you still have him?

Whatever is fed to them can affect the final taste of the meat. Feeding them the finish feed won't adversely affect the final product. Now if you were to finish them off on a diet of juniper berries, that would adversely affect the taste of the final product. I have used turkey finisher on BB turkeys and they were delicious.

The tom became someone's dinner last month. Since I live alone, I won't go to the effort required to cook a turkey dinner for just one person.

Good luck with your turkeys.