As American families gather around holiday tables this season, massive turkeys will take center stage. But even the plumpest butterballs have nothing on the world’s heavyweight champion of turkeys. Just how shockingly massive was history’s heaviest turkey? Let’s dig into the gigantic stats behind this record-shattering bird.
Weighing in at a staggering 86 pounds, a British stag named Tyson officially holds the Guinness World Record for the heaviest turkey ever documented. This behemoth blew away the competition at London’s annual “heaviest turkey” contest in 1989, setting a mind-boggling record that still stands today.
To fully appreciate Tyson’s enormous size, it helps to first understand the typical weight range for domesticated turkeys
Normal Turkey Sizes
Turkey sizes can vary greatly depending on factors like breed gender and diet. Here’s a quick guide
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Female Hens: Usually 8 – 16 pounds
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Male Toms: Typically range from 16 – 24 pounds
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Industrial Turkeys Selectively bred for larger breast meat, these average 18 – 25 pounds for hens and 25 – 35 pounds for toms.
So even the largest commercial tom turkeys max out around 35 pounds – half the size of mighty Tyson!
Back in the 1930s, the average turkey weighed about 13 pounds. But decades of selective breeding have super-sized the birds for industrial production. Still, nothing compares to Tyson’s freakish proportions.
More About Massive Tyson
Tyson was bred and raised by UK farmer Philip Cook, owner of Leacroft Turkeys Ltd. While Cook’s methods for cultivating this colossal turkey aren’t fully publicized, it likely involved carefully managed feeding regimes and breeding over multiple generations.
To put Tyson’s 86 pounds into perspective, that’s heavier than some large dog breeds like Dalmatians and poodles! It’s even approaching the weight of a petite human adult.
This mammoth bird broke records not just for his overall heft, but specifically his dressed weight – the mass after plucking, gutting and cleaning. Imagine wrestling an 86-pound limp turkey!
After dominating the heaviest turkey contest, Tyson was sold at charity auction for an impressive £4,400, or about $6,700. That’s over $14,000 in today’s money – very pricey poultry indeed.
Trying to Topple Tyson
Since Tyson’s victory over 30 years ago, no turkey has come close to topping his record. Every year, poultry farmers endeavor to raise ever-plumper birds for competitions. But the 86-pound milestone has proved impossible to beat.
In the UK alone, numerous poultry growers have tried and failed over the decades:
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In 2020, Mark Chilcott produced a 48-pounder – less than 60% of Tyson’s mass
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Tom Mountain reared a 62-pound turkey in 2015 – still 24 pounds under Tyson
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Wayne Bartholomew’s 2011 entry weighed around 73 pounds
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Jumbo the Turkey held the former UK record in 1989 at 82 pounds before Tyson stole the title
So despite constant efforts employing the latest feeding techniques and genetic selections, Tyson’s supremacy prevails.
Why No Turkey Has Matched Tyson
But why has no other turkey reached such stellar proportions in over 30 years? Several factors play a role:
Genetic Limitations
There may be natural genetic limits on how large domesticated turkeys can grow, regardless of the amount of feed. Selective breeding can only push their size so far.
Diminishing Returns
According to poultry experts, the amount of feed required to add each additional pound increases exponentially as the turkey grows. The costs and labor quickly become prohibitive.
Health Concerns
Oversized turkeys develop severe health issues including heart and lung failure, making it difficult to keep them alive long enough to reach extreme weights.
Changing Priorities
In recent decades, commercial turkey farming has focused more on optimizing breast size rather than overall weight. Tyson’s immensity was likely an anomaly.
The Legacy of Tyson Turkey
For the foreseeable future, Tyson appears destined to rule as the world’s heaviest turkey ever documented. His legendary proportions make even the plumpest holiday birds look petite in comparison.
While Tyson’s runaway weight isn’t representative of commercial turkey production, it does illustrate the remarkable capacity for rapid growth in domesticated turkeys with generous feeding and genetics. This mammoth bird remains a testament to the power of poultry power-eating.
So as you carve into your Thanksgiving turkey this season – even if it’s a hearty 20-pounder – spare a thought for Tyson, the behemoth bird that took turkey plumpness to its absolute limit. He was a true giant among gobblers, a heavyweight like no other!
A 25-Inch Beard. 13 Beards Total. And 4 More Incredible Wild Turkey Records
Every turkey is a trophy, of course, but some are more unusual trophies than others. As this season comes to a close, some of the birds hunters put tags on had more beards or longer beards or spurs. Some were heavyweights, and some combined beards, spurs, and weight to score high on the National Wild Turkey Federation scoring system. Â
The NWTF keeps the record book on turkeys. With their help, weâve compiled a list of some of the most incredible wild turkey records, including the longest beard, most beards, longest spurs, greatest weight, and highest overall scores of all time. And, if youâve tagged an exceptional bird this spring, submit your record through nwtf.org.
NWTF World Record for Turkey with the Longest Beard
Turkey beards neither hang from the birdâs chin nor are they made of hair, but âbeardsâ is the term we use anyway. A beard is a mesofiloplume and may very well have much in common with the tufts of hairlike bristle found on some dinosaur fossils.
Beards never molt nor stop growing, but the tips wear, limiting their length. Eastern wild turkeys generally have the longest beards but long beards are found among all the subspecies. A beard grows out of a skin spot on the breast called a papilla. Both male and female turkeys have papillae, but only about 10 per cent of hens grow beards, and most are quite thin.
In his second year of turkey hunting near his home in New Boston, Texas, Cody May shot an eastern tom with a beard whose longest strands measured 22.5 inches at the check station. By the time he had the brittle beard measured again, it had broken off to 17.5 inches, which would have fallen short of the then-current record of 18.125, shot in Virginia in 1998. However, the original measurement counted as official, giving May the new top spot.