Raising Turkeys for Meat and Profit? Here’s How.

Being one of the ideal animals for meat and profit, Turkey’s price spike during the holidays. In the US, almost half of every household purchases turkey for dinner. As a result, it becomes necessary to raise this big old chicken at a defined rate. Although there aren’t many differences between raising turkeys and chickens, businesses need to look into a few considerations. Here’s a guide stating how to raise meat turkey breeds.

Purchasing Or Hatching A Baby Turkey

You must be knowing that a baby turkey is known as a chick or poult. First things first, you need to buy your poultry. However, while purchasing, make sure you consider a few things.

1. Breed Or Buy

Now, the thing is, do you wish to go for a near Turkey breed or do you wish to purchase poults every year? If it’s your first time raising poultry, it’s better if you purchase poults instead of hatching turkey eggs or breeding adult turkeys. Doing this might lessen the risks at the initial stage. However, if you are experienced, hatching turkey eggs each year will cost you cheap and will be cost-effective.

2. Time Taken To Hatch A Poult

Generally, it takes around 28-31 days to hatch turkey eggs. Later, it takes about 6-7 months for baby turkeys to enter the maturity state. At this stage, they are ready to be butchered or lay eggs.

3. Price Of Buying Poults

Poults are costly when sellers buy them. A downside is, you need to order at least 15 poults together to stay warm when it is shipped to you. Considering this, the total cost of buying poults each year increases. However, if you raise a poult of your own, you don’t need to worry about expenses.

4. Breeding Artificially Or Naturally

If you are deciding to raise meat turkey breeds, make sure you make the heritage breed your initial purchase. Although they don’t enter the maturity stage fast, one advantage is that they can breed naturally. Below is a list of heritage breeds that you can choose from.

• Midget White: Hens weigh around 8-12 pounds and Toms weigh around 16-20 pounds. This breed is the most popular one among turkeys because of its excellent meat taste and easy raising technique.
• Royal Palm: Hens weigh about 10-14 pounds and Toms weigh around 18-20 pounds. This breed of turkeys are incredible layers, perfect moms, and tastes the best among all the heritage breeds.
• Black Spanish: Hens weigh about 14 pounds and toms weigh around 28 pounds. These turkeys are excellent layers besides being calm.
• Blue State: Hens weigh about 14 pounds and toms weigh around 23 pounds. Blue states usually have a brilliant taste. Because this breed experiences lesser problems, they are easy to raise.
• Bourbon Red: Hens weigh about 12-14 pounds and toms weigh around 30 pounds. Bourbons have an excellent personality and are great mothers.

Wrap Up

Upon conclusion, it is safe to state that purchasing heritage breeds is safe when it comes to raising turkeys for money and profit. However, if you wish to go with the kind available in stores (Broad Breasted Turkeys), note that although they get big faster, they cannot breed naturally.