Raising Meat Turkeys for 4-H...advice please!

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
Perhaps next year your kids can get a Heritage breed to raise, show and keep for breeding!

 

[riftnreef]

Indeed...if this goes over pretty well, I would like to look into building a permanant pen and getting a pair of Royal Palms...but we'll have to see how we do with a couple meat birds first.

 

[Turkey Momma]

OK. Lots of good advice here. I would like to add our take on raising 4H turkeys. Your fair is about the same time as ours with the same hatch date, so I'm going to lay out what we do to compete. (3 grand champions and 1 reserve since 2005).

First off, find out from your extension office which 4H groups in Clark concentrate on poultry. Get the advisors' phone numbers. They will be a big help to you in the coming weeks. Don't forget to have the kids attend the QA session so they can show.

If you can make it go to this: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/t02/eventview.asp?id=5242 on the 19th. Any questions you have can be answered there. We will be attending too and would be willing to sit and talk as long as you like. It can also count as their QA requirement.

I would move the poults into the basement. They are very fragile, much more than chicks and need protection from drafts. Also start the heat lamp close enough to the shaving to get it 90* directly under it. Reduce the temp 5* each week. If they get chilled, they will pile up and smother.

Leave a low power (25-40 watt) light on 24 hrs. Just enough so if they want a drink or a bite to eat in the middle of the night they can find it. We have ours in the shed next to the security light and that just enough shinning thru the window for them.

Medicated starter feed is a misnomer; it contains a Coccidiostat, usually Amprolium. It's not an antibiotic or a steroid, it's an antiprotozoal agent that acts upon Coccidia parasites. Coccidiosis can and will kill every bird before you can treat them. GET THE MEDICATED FEED. Don't go cheap. They won't thrive on less protein. You can figure on each bird eating about 75 lbs. of feed. They should weight somewhere around 30-35 lbs. at the fair. Haven't seen a feed tag for the Buckley Bros so I can't really say if it would work. Are they a local company?

Feed a starter ration containing 28% or better protein. Game bird at 30% is a good one too. With only 18 weeks to grow these birds I would keep them on this until 14 days before the show, then switch to a finisher/show ration of 22% protein but with a crude fat of 5%. Keep the feeders full at all times. Have the kids go out every couple of hours and just check the feeders, even if they don't need topped off they can stir the feed around a little. Sometimes the birds will go "Hey I'm hungry!" and go have a snack. You got to push them a little to get them to eat enough to be properly finished.

Keep the feeders and waterers at a height level with the birds back. Don't make them bend over to eat or drink. It'll help to keep the equipment clean.

Start them on 3 inches of pine shaving and add an inch every week. Leave the shaving in place but remove and replace any where the water has spilled. When you take them to the fair there should be a good 12 inches of bedding under them by then. Their bedding needs to be dry and deep to prevent breast buttons and blisters. Do NOT provide them with a roost.

If you have an outside pen for them, we find that it helps them when it gets hot here to put a full kiddie pool for them to stand in. (Yes, they will make a mess of it). And we spray them with the hose on really hot days. If they can't stay cool, they won't eat. If they don't eat........

The hard part is picking the best bird out of the flock to take. 90% of the value in a market turkey is the breast. You want to pick the bird with the widest, longest breast meat. It should not taper to a fine point at the end of the keel bone. Should carry the width as far back as it can. Again, no breast blisters or bruises on the wings. Do you happen to know who the judge is going to be? The extension office should be able to tell you. Each one has his own opinions on what makes the perfect turkey. If it's one we know, we can give you some extra pointers on what to do.

There is probably some stuff I have left out, but if I think of it I will post as it comes to me.

How do you help the breast to be wide and not tapered? What is the best way to create that??

 

[R2elk]

How do you help the breast to be wide and not tapered? What is the best way to create that??

Raise broad breasted turkeys instead of heritage turkeys.