Raising meat turkeys is an adventure on many levels. I’ve had the pleasure of growing a turkey for Thanksgiving for years, starting back in high school. It’s one thing to raise turkeys for dinner, but when you’re trying to turn a dollar, things do get complicated. Let me share some of my experiences with raising meat turkeys so that you can start off on the right foot.
Buying a frozen turkey at the supermarket is a very simple, and very cheap avenue, to a turkey dinner. That being said, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Just like store-bought eggs can’t compare to your eggs fresh from the coop, supermarket turkeys aren’t the same as fresh-off-the-farm birds. If you want the most tender, most flavorful, and absolute freshest bird for your festivities or dinner, then a bird raised at home is your best bet.
I spent my high school years in a regional agricultural school, and as such, I was a member of the FFA. All members of FFA need what’s called an SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) project. Some kids did gardening, some had horses, but I raised birds.
As a freshman in high school, I already had experience raising show poultry. I was breeding fancy show chickens and having a grand time, but there was no profit to be found. AgEd stressed the importance of running your project like a business, and my business was buried in the red. I needed a product to sell and somehow turkeys caught my attention.
Like any business, it’s important to watch how much you spend and how much you make. As long as your expenditure is lower than your gross income, things are cheery, as it was when I started in turkeys. However, things changed.
In the early 2000s, feed prices started to climb, and consequently, so did my costs. By the time I graduated college, my farm expenses were exceeding my farm income, which was an issue. Despite that, I did continue the tradition for a bit longer than I should have.
Sometimes you need to take a step back from things and give yourself time to reconsider. Now that I’ve had some time away from raising meat turkeys, I can identify my shortcomings. When I started, my inexperience was offset by low feed prices. The fault in the business’ foundation opened wide when those feed prices climbed.
I was a big fan of big birds. Unfortunately, my success in growing a big, broad-breasted turkey would be my undoing. My customers wanted a larger bird than your standard supermarket bird, but not as big as I was growing. Once I started producing 50-pound turkeys (dressed weight), I should have realized it was time to back off, but I didn’t.
Raising turkeys is a rewarding experience for any homesteader. Having a fresh organic turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is worth the time and effort. But before jumping in it’s important to understand how long the process takes from poult to processed bird. This allows you to properly plan and ensure your turkeys reach an ideal harvest weight.
Overview of Timeframe
The amount of time needed to raise a turkey varies primarily by sex. A hen turkey typically takes 14 weeks to reach harvest weight A tom turkey takes around 18 weeks grow to full size Below is a summary
- Hens: 14 weeks
- Toms: 18 weeks
The exact timeframe can shift a week or so in either direction based on breed, feed, and other factors. But 14-18 weeks is the general range you can expect.
Raising Turkeys for Thanksgiving
For Thanksgiving turkeys specifically, you’ll want to get poults in July. This gives you 14-18 weeks to raise them to November A July poult arrival allows you to harvest right before Thanksgiving
If you get poults too late in the summer, your turkeys won’t be big enough for Thanksgiving dinner. They need the full 14-18 weeks to reach an ideal processing weight.
You can also do an earlier June arrival for heritage breeds that take a bit longer to mature. But July is the prime month for most common turkey breeds intended for Thanksgiving.
Timeline By Sex
The main variable in how long turkeys take to raise is their sex. Let’s take a closer look at growth rate and timeline for toms vs. hens:
Hens
- Ready for processing at 14 weeks
- Reach target weight of 15.5 lbs at 14 weeks
- Begin poulting around 16 weeks if not processed
- Start laying eggs around 28 weeks if not processed
Toms
- Ready for processing at 18 weeks
- Reach target weight of 38 lbs at 18 weeks
- Begin developing coarser meat if left past 18 weeks
- Will continue growing beyond 18 weeks if not processed
As you can see, hens grow faster and are ready for harvest sooner. Their physique and genetics are optimized for egg laying rather than maximum meat production.
Toms take longer reach their heavier target processing weight. Their bodies are designed to get much bigger than hens.
Final Harvest Weights
The final live weight of your turkeys will depend on when you harvest them. Here are the typical live weights right before processing:
- Hens at 14 weeks: 15.5 lbs
- Toms at 18 weeks: 38 lbs
These harvest weights provide an ideal balance of size and meat quality.
If you let turkeys grow past the target harvest age, they will get bigger but the meat often becomes tougher and less palatable. There are diminishing returns for letting them get too large.
The weights above are live weights right before processing. The final dressed weight of meat will be lower once feathers, organs, head, feet, and blood are removed. You can expect around a 75% dressed weight compared to live weight.
So a 15.5 lb hen will yield around 11-12 lbs of dressed meat. And a 38 lb tom will yield 28-30 lbs of dressed meat. The exact yield varies based on the individual bird and how it is processed.
Factors That Impact Timeframe
Several factors can influence how quickly your turkeys grow and how long they take until processing:
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Breed – Heritage breeds grow slower than commercial breeds. Broad-breasted turkeys grow the fastest.
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Sex – As mentioned above, toms take longer than hens.
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Diet – High protein feed speeds growth. Free ranging and foraging may slow growth if protein intake is lower.
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Weather – Warmer weather with greens grazing extends the growing period. Colder weather or storms may stunt growth.
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Health Issues – Illness, injuries, or parasites can all slow down growth.
While you can’t control the weather or health issues, selecting a fast-growing breed and providing high protein feed will help your turkeys bulk up quickly. Free ranging is great but may slightly extend the raising timeframe if feed intake declines.
Under ideal conditions, the timeframes listed earlier are achievable for most common turkey breeds. But be prepared to add 1-2 weeks if any growth limiting factors occur.
Target Harvest Age
To summarize the key information:
- Hens: 14 weeks
- Toms: 18 weeks
This is the target harvest age to optimize size and meat quality. Much beyond this timeframe causes quality to decline without adding significantly more meat quantity.
The week or two leading up to harvest, keep a close eye on weight. Use a poultry hanging scale to monitor weekly gains and target the ideal harvest weights mentioned earlier.
Processing at the ideal age for your given breed and sex of turkey will reward you with the maximum harvest after your long raising journey. Patience and planning are key.
Ordering Poults
Since you now know how long turkeys take to raise, you can properly plan when to get poults. Be sure to order poults so they arrive at an age that allows 14-18 weeks until your target harvest date.
For Thanksgiving turkeys, arrange for poults to show up in July. For Christmas dinners, aim for late August or early September. Always consult with your poult supplier to ensure your desired delivery date aligns with their hatching and shipping schedule.
Proper planning and ordering of poults is crucial to ensure your turkeys reach a perfect processing weight. So factor in the 14-18 week timeframe as you schedule the arrival of your cute little turkey babies each season!
Raising turkeys is a long but rewarding process. Now that you know hens take 14 weeks and toms take 18 weeks to reach harvest goals, you can better plan your poult purchase dates and target harvest timing. Anticipating the full timeframe will help ensure plump, delicious turkeys every holiday season.
Point of Diminishing Returns
If you’re raising meat turkeys correctly, your toms should be yielding a dressed weight of about 30 pounds at 4.5 months old. I was growing my birds closer to 6 months old before processing, which was a waste of feed. Most of my customers wanted a much smaller bird, preferably one that would fit in their oven. As such, I had a hard time selling my extra-large birds. Those large birds that didn’t sell constituted significant financial losses for me.
When I started growing turkeys, I began on bagged feed. As prices went up, I found my local feed mill and started buying in bulk. If you have a feed mill at your disposal, use it! Buying bulk feed represented a big cost saving over bagged feed.
As I experimented with raising meat turkeys, I also tried different feeds available through the mill. I found a product that was super high in protein, which made my birds grow fast and big. However, that massive bird was my undoing.
Be sure you’re using the right feed, and if you don’t know which is best, ask. Even though I found a high-performance feed that gave results, those results were more expensive than they needed to be. Had I used the correct feed, I would have seen good, controlled growth in my birds. My feed costs would have been lower and my dressed weights would have been easier to sell.
Feed and Water Equipment
Turkeys can eat just fine out of a chicken feeder, but regular chicken water nipples are a no-no. Turkeys require a much higher flow rate for nipple valves to work for them since they’re such a big bird. Turkeys drink a lot of water, much more than you would expect. Manually filling water dispensers will become the bane of your existence, so I highly suggest an automatic water system.
Automatic bell waterers are a simple solution to the issue, but there are high-flow turkey nipple valves on the market. If you decide to try using turkey nipples, be prepared to buy a commercial style watering system. It’s a good investment if you want to be serious about raising meat turkeys, but the cost may scare off some people.
There are a few interesting breeds out there available to you, such as the Royal Palm turkey and the Midget White. If you’re raising turkeys with chickens for fun, then by all means, try some cool heritage breeds!
If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, you can’t go wrong with either a Bronze or White Broad Breasted turkey. These giant birds are king (and queen) of feed conversion, which is how much feed they eat, versus how much meat they produce. These birds grow fast, are available at most commercial hatcheries and are usually inexpensive compared to rarer breeds because of sales volume.
Raising Turkey for Beginners – What you need to know to get started!
FAQ
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