Thursday, July 3, 2014

Turkey Tractor

My prototype turkey tractor is 10'x12' and 6' high.  It's covered in 1"x1" hardware cloth and it has a skirt of approximately 12" to stop predators from digging under. I used 2x2's to keep the weight down, but still heavy enough that it won't flip in strong winds.



I have 16 Large White turkeys that are 1 month old. The tractor is 120 sq.ft. so there is 7.5 sq.ft. per bird which I think will be fine. Meat chickens only get 1.5 - 2 sq.ft. per bird. Although the turkeys move a lot more than the meat chickens do. The turkeys seem to eat a lot of greens too. Which is good because our field has lots of clover. Apparently it makes them taste better :)


They will be 18 weeks old Thanksgiving week (Canadian, Oct 13). I aim to process them at 16 weeks so they don't get too big. At 16 weeks the hens will be around 20 lbs and toms 30 lbs. Dressed weight will be 75% of live weight, hens around 15 lbs and toms 22.5 lbs. Not many people want large birds anymore. Last Thanksgiving I bought an 18 lb turkey from a guy that processed 50 birds. I contacted him to see if he had any left for Christmas and all he had was birds over 25 lb.


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