Turkey Feed and Costs questions...

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WhiteMountainsRanch

WhiteMountainsRanch

Crowing
9 Years
Jun 19, 2010
5,404
34
256
San Diego, CA
This is my first time owning turkeys and they are absolutely awesome. I love them to pieces and they are extremely friendly. They call to me when they see me coming, follow me around like puppies, and drink out the water hose with me.
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They were born approx 7/20/11 which would make them about 3 months old, but they are already about +/- 15 pounds, maybe they are older than the feed store said... I dunno... anywho...


So one thing I wasn't anticipating was how much they eat. WOW those guys can pack away some food!
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Oh and how fast they grow!
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The other thing I didn't anticipate was getting all Toms. Which I think I did. I got them from the feed store, and they didn't know what they were, but I didn't think I'd get ALL Toms.
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So my question is since I ended up will all Toms I will need to sell some as Thanksgiving Turkeys and I need to know how much to sell them for. I didn't keep track of he food they've been eating (like a dummy) and now I don't know what to price them at. Is there a formula maybe an adult turkey eats _____ food per day or something?


Thanks everyone!
 
I did some research and it takes 6lbs of feed per pound of weight gain for bourbon reds, which is what I raise. Here's a good article about it

Does anyone know about feeding a breeding flock? Such as overwinter. I haven't found info on that yet so the price of bringing a bird to slaughter versus a pet is probably different.
 
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Hmm by that formulation, I have 4 Turks at 15 pounds each, that's 90 pounds each (to date) times 4, is roughly 8 bags of feed, which is $160, divided by 4 which would be $40 per turkey with no profit, and it's not thanksgiving yet....

That might be right?
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Probably close?

I could imagine feeding a breeding flock over winter would be VERY expensive.

I ordered 15 rare heritage turkeys to come in the spring and will be setting up a breeding flock, so I am interested too!
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Here's some more info I found

Remember, it will cost you about 1 pound of feed per tom per day and about ½
pound per hen to keep your flock going. Turkeys can be on range all winter long, but will
need a windbreak and fresh water any day snow is not on the ground.
During the winter months we keep them on a maintenance diet of cracked corn
and whole wheat. We vary the ratio from 50- 50 during normal weather to 60% corn &
40% wheat during very cold periods. You could just feed free-choice and let the birds
decide how much energy feed they need.
About one month before they commence to lay (about April 1st in our area) we
switch them over to our laying mash diet... This
increases the protein and insures that the hens get the extra calcium they need for strong
eggs.​
 
Quote:

HOOLY COW!!!
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That's for ONE turkey! Wow that is A LOT of feed!
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Good thing the ones I ordered are heritage and that it's almost Thanksgiving to get rid of these ones!
 
Quote:

HOOLY COW!!!
ep.gif
th.gif


That's for ONE turkey! Wow that is A LOT of feed!
barnie.gif


Good thing the ones I ordered are heritage and that it's almost Thanksgiving to get rid of these ones!

Heritage birds, from my observation, can go get their own food to some extent; but if you need to provide all the feed, the BBW are the most efficient at converting grain to body weight.

Based on my limited experience. ( I have BBW and BR)
 

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