26 replies to this topic

[Sunnysouthdevon]

Is anybody on here rearing turkey's? If do could you give me an approx cost to keep them per week or per month for the amount you have ? It's what I want to rear along with some rare pigs and store lambs

[bramblebasher]

Turkeys are popular here then ey Benackrell! 

 

Well for my little farm, going forward I am considering turkeys. The free range stocking density for these birds is up to 1000 per acre so it would seem that even with a small farm it'd be worth doing. Say you had 4 acres available, you could rotate the flock acre with one year of kale or something that needs tons of nitrogen, or what about growing something like fast growing white clover which could be cut every two weeks and fed to the birds to supplement their diet. Think i need to talk to a specialist about this idea.

 

Even 500 birds direct marketed could be close to 20k, wonder what the costs are. I can feel a new interest in livestock building, veggies didn't get me far! 

 

The big but in the room is whether they can be marketed, and if you are doing a lot of them, is it still worth doing them to sell them onto a supplier? I'm guessing that's going to bring the profits RIGHT down. 

 

I eat turkey, I have the land, I want the birds to have a good laugh to make their existence have some kind of meaning, it seems like a goer but I need to do some serious market research. What does anyone else think of rearing these birds? 

 

B.

[adrian007]

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[j and H]

we will be raising turkey, geese duck and chicken next year also, 

plus we will be offering a christmas package. 

[Sunnysouthdevon]

Free range turkey is a money maker, there is a company down here who rear 300 free range each year and they sell every one if them at £3.50 lb and he gets a profit of 7k.... That's 7k profit for effectively 6 months work, imagine if you had 600 birds? Bramble I think your spot on with the food supplement idea, it will keep cost down and having them free range they will find slot of there own foods and just need topping up with finisher pellets or crumbs

[shepie]

I will be involved in the demise of 500 this weekend and know of another who do 10,000 , there is money in them if you get it right !!!
For a start chickens snd turkey's don't mix chucks Cary black leg ? That kills turkey's
Personally I have enough going on , I would say your either in it or your not
Brambles get some turkeys , big marketing ideas and a huge freezer just incase

[bramblebasher]

Hmmm yes 7k profit would really help, 300 seems manageable. The free range stocking density is 1000 per acre but this would seem to contradict EU regulations of 'direct applied nitrogen to pasture' levels. 

 

I think that you could use the turkeys as part of a really effective rotation system, clover may actually be a bad choice as it actually builds nitrogen now that I think of it! But definitely some kind of ultra fast growing grass mowed down and fed to the turkeys in the non pasture turkey section.

 

As f2f's I suppose that the slower growing non hybrid birds may be the best choice?

 

Ah shepie yes, I have a 50 square metre underground storage building that can quite easily be turned into a giant walk in freezer, it's all coming together. Time to get my marketing head on. 500? That's a lotta necks that need a slicin, eek!

[adrian007]

I.

[Sunnysouthdevon]

I've looked into this a lot over recent weeks and some of the big name frozen turkey giants offer really good packages to people who rear turkeys for them , you get great discount on Turkey food by buying from them instead of say mole valley farmers and the money you get per lb still returns a healthy profit considering it's effectively 5-6 months work

[adrian007]

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[Sunnysouthdevon]

Ok but firstly were abouts in the uk are you based Adrian? I don't want to scupper my chances with one of the companies if your too close to me

[Groundhog]

beware of growing anything under contract you will find a multitude of conditions and you are reliant on the price they give you.

I remember when Tescos set up the farmers club saying join us and we will pay you x% of market price for that week .Brilliant think farmers ill have abit of that so over a period of time all the best animals go direct to tescos cutting out their middle man dealers and buyers costs,after a while the market becomes depressed because the big buyer basically had their quota so were not buying from markets-----------So what happens weekly market prices take a drop----------- so what happens tescos pay only x% above market prices--------- Win Win  for them cheaper meat and control

Result

Closed markets resulting in loss of income to small market towns from the weekly influx of farmers wives to do their shop(not to mention community).Limited places to sell your animals and now animals travelling nearly the length of the country to Jaspers in cornwall.If you are a Watrose member you may have to meet a lorry at a central meeting point say Sailisbury it will then do other pick ups and sheep will be on lorry for hours and may also be kept in lairage overnight Not good for the sheep also they can melt and loose condition.

Tescos farmers club I think was one of the biggest mistakes farmers made by signing up.

Rant over I know its not the same as what you are talking about.

Just beware if they are offering you £10 per bird it will probably end up £6.50 for what ever reason.

Niche marketing high value quality birds lower numbers less outgoing on feed higher gross margin I would try and apply that principle to every part of the enterprize

[shepie]

You won't get many man hours and if you get involved with these GIANTS you won't make any money in the end !!
To kill and pluck 500 free range turkey's will take 20 people 2 days !!!!!

[adrian007]

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[Groundhog]

Fainting goats they are the way to go great high value animals plus visitor value people pay to come in and go BOOO and watch the goats drop to the ground

You tube feinting goats !!

[boiow]

fainting goats.  I want.

[j and H]

lol…my goats would head butt you …why on earth would you want to supply  to supermarkets, you then loose so much profit for all your hard work….build your own customers, supply your own brand,

think outside the box…many of you will be growing your own veg, growing your own christmas trees, chuck in a turkey and a ham, and supply a christmas package….

[shepie]

Man hours / bird ie john nix , not per hour real time
Keep a ewe for a year and it's 4 man hours
You need to keep 5 chickens for a year just to get 1 man hour so what's a turkey worth ???
You need about 2500 man hours to qualify for a good chance of getting 3 yrs temp

[j and H]

is the functional need for the PP to actually build a dwelling, or to get the 3 year temp, 

[bramblebasher]

Shepie so that's 48 hours per week? Should it not be 40 hours per week or is it based on 6 days a week at 8 hours vs 5 days a week? 48 hours per week john nix, 68 real world! 

 

I really do not understand how people around me have got permission based on 15 to 30 alpacas, does not see like the man hours would stack up for that?