Heritage Turkeys - Why The Trend Change?
Turkeys, and more specifically, Heritage Turkeys, have gotten more and more popular over the past few years. It used to be that if you wanted a heritage variety, you had to have poults or eggs shipped in from another breeder (if even that) but now, depending on your location, chances are that you can find some within driving distance.
Why have the heritage breeds suddenly made a turn around? This article explains some reasons for the trend change.
Hardiness:
Heritage varieties are unusually hardy compared to the commercial Broad Breasted varieties. They are still vulnerable for the first three months or so but after that, it is unlikely that you will lose many (if any) to the elements.
Commercial poultry operations have been hit hard by several diseases in the past few years such as END (Exotic Newcastle Disease) and AI (Avian Influenza). While heritage turkeys certainly aren't immune from the affects of these terrible poultry diseases, they have a much lower risk of getting infected by them because of they're vigor.
Commercial strains are bred to be big and that's about all they are good for. With the record weight for a turkey at well over 100 pounds (live), it's easy to see that commercial breeders have all but ignored other important things such as vigor, having a big gene pool, and many other traits that the heritage breeds still have.
Taste:
Sorry vegans but I had to touch on this one :). A lot of people think that the heritage varieties have a better flavor then the BB varieties. It's true that they have less white meat but most people think they have a better flavor. I am leaving the rest of this particular topic to the New York Times. They have a great article about the flavor / tenderness of heritage turkeys.
More Variety:
Scenario 1. You decide to raise commercial BB turkeys. You get your catalog and pick either Bronze or White turkeys.
Scenario 2. You decide to raise heritage turkeys. You get your SPPA breeders directory (or some other source for turkey breeders) and you spend hours trying to decide whether you should get Beltsville Whites, or maybe Bourbon Reds, or Royal Palms, or why not a few Naragansetts. A few of the breeds currently in existance are: Beltsville Whites, White Midgets, Bourbon Reds, Royal Palms, Blue Palms, Naragansettes, Bronze, Blue Slates, Black Spanish, Chocolates, Auburns, Silver Auburns, "New" Jersey Buffs, and many more.
As you can see, you have a lot of choices if you decide to raise heritage turkeys. It is also fun to cross varieties and see what you can do to the genetics. The BB varieties are limited to Bronze and White (and BB Bronze turkeys are fast disappearing).
Plain Old Fun:
Heritage turkeys are fun to raise, fun to keep, just all around fun. They often have they're own personalities and they can easily be turned into pets. They are very friendly if they are handled by humans frequently and they have many other desirable traits.
Years ago, heritage varieties were the turkeys of choice if you were going to be raising turkeys but then the BB varieties took over most of the market. It appears that heritage turkeys are once more gaining popularity. A few genes (such as the "chocolate" gene) are almost extinct but despite the fact that heritage turkeys have only been bred in small numbers for the past few decades, they appear to have few of the problems normally associated with inbreeding.
I hope this article has helped you to better understand the state of heritage turkeys. They are still only a fraction of the turkeys raised each year but they appear to be recovering slowly but surely as more people see the benefits of raising the heritage varieties.
This article was written by Nathan Malone.