Turkeys For 2013

[Bettacreek]

What?! We only got 43lbs of meat off our's! Of course, I only kept meat and pelt, no soup bones or anything like that. It's my favorite meat (besides venison) and even the cat prefers it over everything else.

I agree about the butchering. I take 1 sheep to the butcher once a year and to process and cut up is about $50.00 and I bring home about an average of 120 lbs of meat. One lamb meal at a fancy shmancy restaurant would be about $50.00 if not more. :/ Makes sense to me.

I like our area. You can get any meat you want and almost any produce. Meat, you can get locally raised alligator, water buffalo, bison, beef, lamb, pork, goose, duck, etc, and hunt for your own venison. And, all of this can be purchased within a thirty minute drive. The college town adds to ag, because there are a lot of different cultures that stay there, so people in our area have a variety of options to raise and we've got a good market for it.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Feeding--  here is my take on feeding at this point. THis is not meant to dis any birds. THey all, heritage turkey, BBW, commercial chickens, heritage chickens,  etc. have a place IMO.

Each type of poultry has a genetic growth rate,  and a specific muscle: bone ratio.  THese birds were designed to live in a specific farming situation to utilize their abilities. For example: 

A BBW must have high % protein feed and lots of it ( high poundage a day) to maximize growth, and weigh a massive amount in a fairly short time ( 4 months) Grain is milled to have a very high % protein and fed right to the bird. 

Heritage turkeys and many chickens-- good foragers to find thier own food; some better than others. I have some chickens that are right out into the woods and others that hang at the feeders. My turkeys hang at the feeders.

Egg layer hatchery breeds of Chickens-- almost the opposite of BBW, very slow growing, with very light muscling by 5 months, weighing about 5 pounds. Poor growth rates for the amount of feed they eat ( feed to muscle conversion.)

Heritage turkeys-- each breed does seem to have some growth rate differences and that reflects the  mucle: bone ratio and final adult size. THese are the birds that IMO are good for foraging situations; and while they would benefit from pelleted/commercial/ custom mixed grains,  they grow slw enough that the expensive feed is not a must like the BBW. 

I am wondering if the BBW can be successfully pasture raised; perhaps with special considerations and management.  I would consider a half bred before a full bred but we work with what we have, right?   I'm concerned with this type of bird not getting enough protein, not to maximize the meat growth, but because the body wants to put on muscle fast does this bird even survive in a free range sittation. ( I'm thinking of trying this as an experiment this summer) Maybe some of you have this experience and can share.

For the 6 months of growing season I have here, I'm thinking I would want a bird that is ready for the freezer in 6 months. Feed is VERY expensive here to winter over extra animals. Most animals go thru a fast growth period, then pack on muscle then slow the growth until it platueas to final adult body weight. 

Oddly the BBW and BBB is th bird that fits into this scheme.  Or a chicken. 

Has anyone tracked  growth rates? Celie you live in an area with foraging year round so it makes sense to process at 18 months. Can you tell me what your birds weigh at 6 months or 8 months? 

Most of this is thinking out loud, and I have little scientific info rather a few years of raising livestock and observing my birds for a couple years. 

Love to have input.

Excellent thoughts!

As far as growth rates, this will be my first year tracking. I have always been a fan of reading studies referencing of tracking weights, etc. This is why I decided to finally document this year. My first weights were this past week but I am excited to know what the weekly gains will be up to 6 months, 8 months, 10 month, 12 months,etc and up to processing. Mine do free range and forage but it's only on limited land and they refuse to venture out on their own which is a good thing. They like being close to home for some reason. :/

I would love to hear if anyone has tracked growth rates as well, to include diet, type of feed fed, etc. This would be a great way for all of us to compare to our different regions/areas/temps/foraging access/available feed/etc.

Good thinking out loud and posting.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yes, bbw/bbb and cornish cross free-range with the best of them. Mine are often a half mile or so down the road (no neighbors close here). The chickens go right with them. Not a single one of my layers will go more than a hundred yards from the house. The only two chickens that aren't cornishcross who range with the turkeys are two mixed birds, and they stick with the turkeys for protection, since they're bantam mixes.

Feeding--  here is my take on feeding at this point. THis is not meant to dis any birds. THey all, heritage turkey, BBW, commercial chickens, heritage chickens,  etc. have a place IMO.

Each type of poultry has a genetic growth rate,  and a specific muscle: bone ratio.  THese birds were designed to live in a specific farming situation to utilize their abilities. For example: 

A BBW must have high % protein feed and lots of it ( high poundage a day) to maximize growth, and weigh a massive amount in a fairly short time ( 4 months) Grain is milled to have a very high % protein and fed right to the bird. 

Heritage turkeys and many chickens-- good foragers to find thier own food; some better than others. I have some chickens that are right out into the woods and others that hang at the feeders. My turkeys hang at the feeders.

Egg layer hatchery breeds of Chickens-- almost the opposite of BBW, very slow growing, with very light muscling by 5 months, weighing about 5 pounds. Poor growth rates for the amount of feed they eat ( feed to muscle conversion.)

Heritage turkeys-- each breed does seem to have some growth rate differences and that reflects the  mucle: bone ratio and final adult size. THese are the birds that IMO are good for foraging situations; and while they would benefit from pelleted/commercial/ custom mixed grains,  they grow slw enough that the expensive feed is not a must like the BBW. 

I am wondering if the BBW can be successfully pasture raised; perhaps with special considerations and management.  I would consider a half bred before a full bred but we work with what we have, right?   I'm concerned with this type of bird not getting enough protein, not to maximize the meat growth, but because the body wants to put on muscle fast does this bird even survive in a free range sittation. ( I'm thinking of trying this as an experiment this summer) Maybe some of you have this experience and can share.

For the 6 months of growing season I have here, I'm thinking I would want a bird that is ready for the freezer in 6 months. Feed is VERY expensive here to winter over extra animals. Most animals go thru a fast growth period, then pack on muscle then slow the growth until it platueas to final adult body weight. 

Oddly the BBW and BBB is th bird that fits into this scheme.  Or a chicken. 

Has anyone tracked  growth rates? Celie you live in an area with foraging year round so it makes sense to process at 18 months. Can you tell me what your birds weigh at 6 months or 8 months? 

Most of this is thinking out loud, and I have little scientific info rather a few years of raising livestock and observing my birds for a couple years. 

Love to have input.

 

[kuntrygirl]

What?! We only got 43lbs of meat off our's! Of course, I only kept meat and pelt, no soup bones or anything like that. It's my favorite meat (besides venison) and even the cat prefers it over everything else.

I agree about the butchering. I take 1 sheep to the butcher once a year and to process and cut up is about $50.00 and I bring home about an average of 120 lbs of meat. One lamb meal at a fancy shmancy restaurant would be about $50.00 if not more. :/ Makes sense to me.

I like our area. You can get any meat you want and almost any produce. Meat, you can get locally raised alligator, water buffalo, bison, beef, lamb, pork, goose, duck, etc, and hunt for your own venison. And, all of this can be purchased within a thirty minute drive. The college town adds to ag, because there are a lot of different cultures that stay there, so people in our area have a variety of options to raise and we've got a good market for it.

Well, the 120lbs was with the types of cuts, so of course some bones were included. The same as the basic lamb cuts at the butcher. (SEE DIAGRAM BELOW) Are yours butchered the same way?

 

[Bettacreek]

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the cornish crosses and bb turkeys. If you raise them in a back yard setting, without pumping them full of feed and without cramping their exercise, they will have a HIGHER free-range drive to support that growth. They won't get as big as fast as commercial conditions, but it's better than killing them prematurely with heart or leg issues.

 

[Bettacreek]

No, we did ours in only four cuts, no bone. Stew meat, ground meat, boneless roasts and the chops. They cut the meat from between the ribs instead of having ribs, since we both hate straight ribs.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Great discussion everyone. Kuntrygirl, you asked how much I would pay for a prime hen, I don't know!!! lol Hoping I can find something pretty inexpensive though. I guess $50 isn't bad from what I'm hearing here, and since I know I can find some for that price, I probably wouldn't exceed that amount, around here at least. So, to answer your question, not more than $50, lol

As far as sheep, I hope to eventually get some. Probably going to get Katahdin or Dorper, those are hair sheep bred for meat. But supposed to be really hardy, thrifty, great parents, parasite resistant and not really suffer from all the other things sheep are usually susceptible to. Sound too good to be true!! For growing some feed, I am really interested in this subject! Soybeans are a good source of protein, but need to be heated before feeding to release some dangerous substances. And then grinded. I was looking into amaranth, it is REALLY high in protein 14%-18%, easy to grow, easy to harvest, and it wouldn't have to be crushed. I think it still needed to go through some heat process before being perfectly safe though. Here's the link, http://www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/grains.html been a while since I was on there. But amaranth seems like the secret for me. That site also has a lot of other useful info.I'm sure it will be of benefit to some of you. I hope to grow this year some corn, oats, millet, amaranth, BOSS and then garden produce that stores well like pumkins, mangles and the like. I'm also interested in growing Black Soldier Fly larvae. I find it easier than worms, crickets and meal worms. Look them up, I think they are great. I grew some in a homemade bin, but had trouble with the crawl off ramp. Oh yea, did I mention they're self harvesting, self probogating and only need your turkey manure to live on? lol I'm thinking I can dry or freeze them for use in the winter months.

That's ok. Still a good price to pay.

 

[larry529]

thanks a lot, it has a lot of good information in the article

 

[Arielle]

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the cornish crosses and bb turkeys. If you raise them in a back yard setting, without pumping them full of feed and without cramping their exercise, they will have a HIGHER free-range drive to support that growth. They won't get as big as fast as commercial conditions, but it's better than killing them prematurely with heart or leg issues.

I wasn't sure how much they kept up with the heritage birds; I did freerange my BBW one summer but by the time they hit 4 months, they stopped leaving their coop area. Nice 35 pound carcass on the toms at butchering. Ate a lot of costly feed-- and the cost is even higher NOW.
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THey do bring an efficiency that a cross would be of interest. Does anyone have the Sweetgrass derived fromt he Bronze? Sand HIll some and notes that they are not consistent in the breast area. I intepret this to mean the goal is to slim down the breast to a natural mating size. So I thought this bird was from BBB, yes or no?

 

[kuntrygirl]

No, we did ours in only four cuts, no bone. Stew meat, ground meat, boneless roasts and the chops. They cut the meat from between the ribs instead of having ribs, since we both hate straight ribs.

That's a good idea. I think I will tell them to cut mine that way this year. Thanks for the info.