This year we started offering bird processing for customers as a service. The other local bird processing service shut down, so we stepped in with our equipment to fill the gap. And wow there is a large demand for processing this time of year!
One of the most surprising was this guy, a Tom raised by a location family. The biggest turkey I have ever seen!
This guy was so heavy it took both Hunter and I to handle him! We didn't have the opportunity to weigh actually, but I am sure it was close to 70lbs!
Amazingly, it was healthy! It could walk well, unlike most commercial breed turkeys. It had a good layer of fat inside and the liver (nature's window into health status) was beautiful! Everything was just... Big!
Honestly, most turkeys (and chickens for that matter) are not healthy when we see them. They are suffering from various degrees of malnutrition and toxic exposure, mostly due to highly selective breeding and poor quality Feed of mostly soy (horrible food source!) Often the organs are not even useable due to poor health.
But this guy... Healthy and huge! So naturally we were curious about the Feed. Opening the gizzard showed the vast majority of intake was grass! This was a truly great fed turkey. What a difference it makes!
The moral of this story is... Be careful which feed you choose. Just because it has a popular name on the label does not mean healthy. About all soy containing feed, and anything without organically raised ingredients. But there is more... Keep in mind that feed companies are motivated to add no more nutrition than necessary in order to increase their profits. Yes, the trade-off is between their profit and your health. They must draw the line somewhere to compete on price.
This is why we have turned to using our own produce to raise animals. Skip the commercial feed completely. Plus, designing our own feeds to our own quality standards. That way we know what's in there, and what it provides for the animals, and ultimately for you.
This turkey was a great lesson in "doing it right"!
One of the most surprising was this guy, a Tom raised by a location family. The biggest turkey I have ever seen!
This guy was so heavy it took both Hunter and I to handle him! We didn't have the opportunity to weigh actually, but I am sure it was close to 70lbs!
Amazingly, it was healthy! It could walk well, unlike most commercial breed turkeys. It had a good layer of fat inside and the liver (nature's window into health status) was beautiful! Everything was just... Big!
Honestly, most turkeys (and chickens for that matter) are not healthy when we see them. They are suffering from various degrees of malnutrition and toxic exposure, mostly due to highly selective breeding and poor quality Feed of mostly soy (horrible food source!) Often the organs are not even useable due to poor health.
But this guy... Healthy and huge! So naturally we were curious about the Feed. Opening the gizzard showed the vast majority of intake was grass! This was a truly great fed turkey. What a difference it makes!
The moral of this story is... Be careful which feed you choose. Just because it has a popular name on the label does not mean healthy. About all soy containing feed, and anything without organically raised ingredients. But there is more... Keep in mind that feed companies are motivated to add no more nutrition than necessary in order to increase their profits. Yes, the trade-off is between their profit and your health. They must draw the line somewhere to compete on price.
This is why we have turned to using our own produce to raise animals. Skip the commercial feed completely. Plus, designing our own feeds to our own quality standards. That way we know what's in there, and what it provides for the animals, and ultimately for you.
This turkey was a great lesson in "doing it right"!
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