Free range question (turkey/acre)

[gluglu]

Hello everybody. I have a big question for all of you people. How many heritage turkeys i can raise on a 98 acre pasture in a free range system ? Planning to do that so i need to collect a lot of info. I plan to provide their food from the pasture grass ( 40%) and grains( 60% that would include corn,wheat and soya or sunflower). Thanks in advance for your precious time.

 

[AudieWarren]

100 turkeys per acre is the European standard. The US doesn't really have definite standards. To me, that's still very packed. I personally would only have half of that.

 

[gluglu]

Thanks. Can you tell me please where did you got this info? Is there any web site where i can read more about?

 

[AudieWarren]

Thanks. Can you tell me please where did you got this info? Is there any web site where i can read more about?

I Googled" how many turkeys per acre for free range " last spring. There are a couple of articles that pop up.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks. Can you tell me please where did you got this info? Is there any web site where i can read more about?

Pastured Turkey Basics has a much more realistic 200 turkeys per 100 acres recommendation and they are doing it with BBW turkeys. By their very nature, heritage turkeys need more room per turkey than broad breasted turkeys can get by on.

I see a number of the places that say you can do 100 turkeys on one acre but I do not think that is a reasonable number to be able to free range. At least one site says that you need 5 acres to dispose of the droppings that the 100 turkeys produce on that one acre.

Not all acres are created equal and will not be used equally by the turkeys. My turkeys (currently 11 adults) get to free range on 2 acres daily but are closed in a run for the nights for safety. While they use the whole 2 acres throughout the course of the day, they spend most of the day on a 1/2 acre area which contains the best shelter, shade, forage and water.

 

[AudieWarren]

Pastured Turkey Basics has a much more realistic 200 turkeys per 100 acres recommendation and they are doing it with BBW turkeys. By their very nature, heritage turkeys need more room per turkey than broad breasted turkeys can get by on.

I see a number of the places that say you can do 100 turkeys on one acre but I do not think that is a reasonable number to be able to free range. At least one site says that you need 5 acres to dispose of the droppings that the 100 turkeys produce on that one acre.

Not all acres are created equal and will not be used equally by the turkeys. My turkeys (currently 11 adults) get to free range on 2 acres daily but are closed in a run for the nights for safety. While they use the whole 2 acres throughout the course of the day, they spend most of the day on a 1/2 acre area which contains the best shelter, shade, forage and water.

Exactly!!! I have 10 adult turkeys. They have access to 53 acres during the day. They stay on about 4 acres. They only use about a quarter acre at a time depending on the time of day. They follow the sun. By night time they have made thier way back to the coop.