"Turkey farmers have had a hard year as the demand for turkeys grows smaller. The pandemic, forcing all in-person events to cancel is the main cause of this."-- jif dillemuth, 8th grade
During quarantine where big thanksgiving gatherings aren’t safe yet, most people will be getting a smaller turkey or none at all. However, Turkey farmers are afraid they have got too few small turkeys and too many big turkeys.
“At the country’s 2,500 turkey farms, farmers are trying to predict demand and processing schedules, fear they will be stuck with too many big turkeys and not enough small ones” says Laura Reiley in her recent News Break article, “Turkey farmers fear that, this year, they’ve bred too many big birds.”
Turkey farmers have had a hard year as the demand for turkeys grows smaller. The pandemic, forcing all in-person events to cancel is the main cause of this. Wholesale food-services have made turkey breasts irrelevant. Renaissance festivals as well as other fairs have stopped usage of turkey legs.
With less people gathering together to share a turkey with, turkey farmers will have a big drop in sales this Thanksgiving. It will be hard to bring business back up when things start getting back to normal as they have already lost over 20 percent of sales.
The solution? Some think it could be as simple as to start breeding smaller birds, but it’s way more complicated. This will take time and lots of formulas to try to start. With genetics in the equation you can never tell how much time it will take. “Even if farmers wanted to raise smaller turkeys, it’s not that easy. Genetics, coupled with economically driven feed formulas, produce birds that mature at a predetermined size in a set amount of time.” Kim Severson states during her New York Times article “A Disrupted Thanksgiving Leaves the Turkey Business Guessing”
It is still unknown how the turkey business is going to recover. An alternative meal to a turkey might be just foods that you might normally be eating as sides, tofurky, or even chicken. Whether you get turkey or not, have a great safe thanksgiving!
“At the country’s 2,500 turkey farms, farmers are trying to predict demand and processing schedules, fear they will be stuck with too many big turkeys and not enough small ones” says Laura Reiley in her recent News Break article, “Turkey farmers fear that, this year, they’ve bred too many big birds.”
Turkey farmers have had a hard year as the demand for turkeys grows smaller. The pandemic, forcing all in-person events to cancel is the main cause of this. Wholesale food-services have made turkey breasts irrelevant. Renaissance festivals as well as other fairs have stopped usage of turkey legs.
With less people gathering together to share a turkey with, turkey farmers will have a big drop in sales this Thanksgiving. It will be hard to bring business back up when things start getting back to normal as they have already lost over 20 percent of sales.
The solution? Some think it could be as simple as to start breeding smaller birds, but it’s way more complicated. This will take time and lots of formulas to try to start. With genetics in the equation you can never tell how much time it will take. “Even if farmers wanted to raise smaller turkeys, it’s not that easy. Genetics, coupled with economically driven feed formulas, produce birds that mature at a predetermined size in a set amount of time.” Kim Severson states during her New York Times article “A Disrupted Thanksgiving Leaves the Turkey Business Guessing”
It is still unknown how the turkey business is going to recover. An alternative meal to a turkey might be just foods that you might normally be eating as sides, tofurky, or even chicken. Whether you get turkey or not, have a great safe thanksgiving!
