How old should turkeys be when showing a market pen for 4h?

[Engteacher]

Just curious if anyone knows the answe to this question. Our son will be bringing turkeys to the county fair for 4H for the first time. I know that for meat chickens the birds should be about 8 weeks so that they aren't too big. What's the rule of thumb for turkeys? Do you take your best matched pair? The largest? The best ...what?

We have 12 broad breasted bronze and 5 broad breasted whites to choose from. They will be 19 weeks at fair time. We are rookies, so it's all new to us. Last year there were ZERO turkeys at our county fair, so we needed to remedy that situation.

Thanks for your ideas!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Your best bet will be to contact the person responsible for the livestock part of your fair and ask them. They should be able to give you specifics. Minnesota being a major turkey producer they likely have definite ideas of what they are looking for in a market turkey.