The Bovine Bugle

What a farm family can do with 15 turkeys on hand

Noah shows off one of his dad's turkeys shortly after it
spent the summer grazing at Howmars Farm.

A reader wrote in to ask about the turkeys and what do we do with all of them. Well, we sell some and we keep some for our own use. We started raising turkeys, oh, before son Ben was born, 15 years ago at least. It started as a venture with Karen's younger brother, Gary. We raised some for us and several family members, and some to sell. We didn't really make any money, but we had some good turkey to eat!

The turkey operation has changed over the years. Once we had a confinement-type set-up where the turkeys were in an enclosed pen and fed just a conventional grain diet. Now the turkeys are in a portable shelter that is moved twice a day to give them fresh grass to graze and they are fed organic grain. By raising the turkeys this way we reduce the amount of grain fed by up to 30 percent, and the meat of the turkeys has all the health benefits of being raised on grass. And being out in the sunshine and getting plenty of exercise makes for a healthy bird.

As far as the economics of raising the turkeys, we really don't plan on making money. We shoot for selling enough turkeys to cover the cost of the birds we keep for ourselves to use throughout the year. We usually use around 15 turkeys a year. The turkeys, along with the beef and meat chickens raised here at the farm, give us all the meat we need for the year. And when it comes to large family gatherings, nothing is better to have than a nice 30 lb. tom turkey roasted until the meat is falling off the bone!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont