After Thanksgiving Turkey Sales - How can they be so cheap?

[DaveAlvarado]

They're losing money.

They've already bought the turkey from the supplier. Let's say they paid $0.99/lb and sold before Thanksgiving for $1.49/lb. They can either sell for $0.69/lb and lose $0.30/lb, or they can sit on them for $1.49/lb until they go bad and lose $0.99/lb.

Presumably they've already made a bunch of profit selling the turkeys. They're just recouping some of the cost of misjudging how many turkeys they'd sell.

 

[Haveuseen1?]

I have hobby farmed turkeys, chickens, pheasant, and quail. There will be no savings on raising your own bird. You will get the benefit of knowing what conditions your bird was raised in, and you will know most of what it ate. It will take more time than you think, more space than you think, it will cost more than you think, and in the end you will have a product that you may have named ready for slaughter. Will they taste better? That would be a personal call. I love to eat wild turkey and most years I will limit out. They taste different than a commercial turkey, and a hobby turkey. I have also had them that had been eating wild onions, and you couldnt even eat them. I have nothing against commercial farms, feed lots, or slaughter houses, and buying food from them does not bother me. My favorite thing to hear from a hobby farmer is "free range". Which means I have no idea what this animal is eating most of the time, but I trust it is smart enough to eat the best things available. I have had chickens that had glass, legos, bb's, and an assortment of other things in their crop that they picked up while free range. Who knows. In the end, I think it comes down to what makes you sleep best at night.

If I took the original post in the wrong manner, well sorry to derail.

 

[YankeeBBQboy]

I have hobby farmed turkeys, chickens, pheasant, and quail. There will be no savings on raising your own bird. You will get the benefit of knowing what conditions your bird was raised in, and you will know most of what it ate. It will take more time than you think, more space than you think, it will cost more than you think, and in the end you will have a product that you may have named ready for slaughter. Will they taste better? That would be a personal call. I love to eat wild turkey and most years I will limit out. They taste different than a commercial turkey, and a hobby turkey. I have also had them that had been eating wild onions, and you couldnt even eat them. I have nothing against commercial farms, feed lots, or slaughter houses, and buying food from them does not bother me. My favorite thing to hear from a hobby farmer is "free range". Which means I have no idea what this animal is eating most of the time, but I trust it is smart enough to eat the best things available. I have had chickens that had glass, legos, bb's, and an assortment of other things in their crop that they picked up while free range. Who knows. In the end, I think it comes down to what makes you sleep best at night.

If I took the original post in the wrong manner, well sorry to derail.

Actually you took it in the direction I was hoping for. I enjoyed your insights and woulf love to have the opportunity to try a wild turkey as we don't see too many of those in the Chicago area.

What difference do you notice in the taste between the comercial products and the ones that you raise?

 

[Crazy Harry]

There is a big difference between the commercial turkey and the free range variety. the commercial one is a Dolly Parton while the other is a Twiggy.

 

[YankeeBBQboy]

I thought that some of you might find this article interesting on how much it costs a small to medium size farmer to raise a turkey.

http://www.namimoonfarms.com/news/the-price-of-a-turkey/

Quite a difference from 69 cents or even $1.29 cents a pound.

 

[Haveuseen1?]

The first thing I can tell you about a Hobby Turkey vs a Commercial turkey is that Turkeys are very aggressive. I dont cut their beaks and many commercial farmers do. A tom will pounce on you, spur the heck out of you, hit you with his wings, and peck you. Sometimes a hen will peck you, but not as bad. They will whack you with their wings if you pick them up. I raise/raised Heritage Bronze turkeys. The look like wild turkeys. I never injected them with any kind of brine after killing them like you would find in most store bought turkeys. If you wanted to brine them you would need to do the soak. You can buy feed that is medicated or not. I always alternate a bag. I learned that when a human notices that a bird is not doing well, it is about to die. I dont lose many turkeys and that is mostly when they are poults. Once they get some size they are sturdy. I do notice that they can get a serious load of ticks on them. Especially in their "armpit" area. I am sure commercial turkeys dont seem to have tick problems, where a free range bird would. I let my turkeys wander on about an acre, not massive, but half of it is wooded. They have darker meat than commercial birds, because they are getting exercise. Plus turkeys fly very well. They can roost much higher than you think. Overall the taste is great, but I think commercial birds taste great as well. It is fun if you have the space and time. Oh yeah, when I slaughter them, I skin them. Much easier than plucking in my opinion. So if you like turkey skin you will have more work to do.

 

[YankeeBBQboy]

Here is another link talking about supply and demand for turkeys and wholesale prices.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/thanksgiving-s-46-million-turkeys-getting-expensive.html

With a high wholesale price of $1.24 a pound, that is still a pretty cheap turkey.

These two articles have been somewhat of an eye opener for me. Don't know how this is goinv to impact my buying decisions but at least its going to give me something to think about.

 

[TXLX]

Whole frozen birds were .59 before T-Day here. I bought frozen breasts for essentially $1.15 lb. Not big on turkey, but I like a good sandwich year round!