We'd like to start raising turkeys. We live in Western Montana and have cold winters (not as cold as eastern Montana or other states like Michigan though!). They turkeys will have adequate shelter, of course but I'm wondering which breeds might tolerate the cold better.
The breeds we've considered are bourbon reds, royal palm, and chocolates. Several people around here have bourbon reds though so we were thinking maybe doing a different breed so we'd have something different, for variety.
Royal palms seem to be a good fit, considering their size because I'm the one that does all of the "dirty work" when it comes to processing for meat and I'm probably looking at doing turkeys alone so smaller turkeys seem ideal to me. But I've heard that their feed-to-meat conversion isn't very good and that they're more of a fancy breed than meat breed and aren't good meat producers. Did I hear wrong or is that pretty right on par?
As for chocolates, one reason why we're interested in them is they're listed as critical on the ALBC list and well... I love the color, chocolate. Anyone on here have chocolate turkeys? What are your opinions on them? Do they forage well?
We'd like our turkeys to free range. We have 20 acres, in the woods. Unfortunately, we do have bears along with coyotes, foxes, raccoons, weasels, etc. The only predator we had issues with last year was a bear and this year we have electric fencing and a farm dog to alert us to predators.
All in all, we'd like a hardy turkey breed that forages well and is cold hardy. And produces a decent dress-out ratio.
The breeds we've considered are bourbon reds, royal palm, and chocolates. Several people around here have bourbon reds though so we were thinking maybe doing a different breed so we'd have something different, for variety.
Royal palms seem to be a good fit, considering their size because I'm the one that does all of the "dirty work" when it comes to processing for meat and I'm probably looking at doing turkeys alone so smaller turkeys seem ideal to me. But I've heard that their feed-to-meat conversion isn't very good and that they're more of a fancy breed than meat breed and aren't good meat producers. Did I hear wrong or is that pretty right on par?
As for chocolates, one reason why we're interested in them is they're listed as critical on the ALBC list and well... I love the color, chocolate. Anyone on here have chocolate turkeys? What are your opinions on them? Do they forage well?
We'd like our turkeys to free range. We have 20 acres, in the woods. Unfortunately, we do have bears along with coyotes, foxes, raccoons, weasels, etc. The only predator we had issues with last year was a bear and this year we have electric fencing and a farm dog to alert us to predators.
All in all, we'd like a hardy turkey breed that forages well and is cold hardy. And produces a decent dress-out ratio.
