Why a Pasture-Raised Thanksgiving Turkey Costs $95 By Lola Fadulu Photographs by Casey Steffens Nov. 27, 2024
The turkeys that Troll Bridge Farm in Arcade, N.Y., sells for Thanksgiving are broad-breasted whites, and most weigh between 16 and 19 pounds. They cost $5 per pound, up from $3.50 per pound in 2019, for a total cost of $80 to $95.
The farm buys the turkeys from a hatchery as babies, or poults, for $10 each. They spend their first five weeks in a brooder that keeps them warm, and heats up to 101 degrees. Electricity costs about $60 each month.
A wagon used in the pasture as a water station and shelter cost about $800 to build, and the farm spent $400 this year to replace its wood flooring. Water is stored in 250-gallon totes that cost around $75 each.
The pine shavings used as bedding for the brooder come in bags that are around three cubic feet. The farm spends between $8 to $25 per week on the bedding, up from $5 to $20 in 2019.
Feed costs 28 cents per pound, up from less than 25 cents per pound in 2019. Turkeys can eat nearly one pound of feed per day.
Electric fencing to contain the turkeys once they move to the pasture costs $300 every three years, up from around $250 in 2019. The farm spent $350 on a fence charger in 2021, and it is expected to last 10 years.
It costs around $10 to process each bird at the slaughterhouse, which involves butchering, inspecting, bagging and labeling them. That’s up from about $5 per bird in 2019.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTWhy a Pasture-Raised Thanksgiving Turkey Costs $95The turkeys at Troll Bridge Farm are pasture-raised, and Lisa Skillman, who runs the farm with her husband and four of their six children, said she works hard to keep the birds as natural as possible. Their beaks aren’t cut and their toes aren’t clipped, practices often used on farms owned by large corporations.
Ms. Skillman was raised on a dairy farm that was on the land where Troll Bridge now sits. When her parents sold the business more than 25 years ago, they kept the land. Ms. Skillman decided to begin farming again in 2007, starting with raising goats. She added turkeys, chickens and pigs in 2018.
“It’s just what I wanted to do,” she said, adding that she loved working with animals and being outdoors. “It’s just in my blood.”
Ms. Skillman said her original plan had been to raise animals for her family to eat, and that she struggled to even find customers to buy the poultry and pork.
That changed in 2020, when many people had trouble finding the meat they were used to in grocery stores during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, demand for pasture-raised animals has soared.
This year, Ms. Skillman’s farm sold out of its turkeys — 41 in all — earlier than ever, on Nov. 3. She said the majority of the farms in her area have more customers than they can handle, and some farmers have even asked her if she has extra turkeys to sell.
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