A Better Bird for a Better Thanksgiving
Why choosing a local, humanely raised turkey matters
Ayrshire Farm turkeys enjoy warm autumn weather on Nov. 1, 2024.
This is the sixth installment in the WholeHarvest Year series, which aims to chronicle the farming cycle at Ayrshire Farm.
When it comes to a classic Thanksgiving dinner, there’s no doubt that turkey is the centerpiece. An estimated 88 percent of Americans eat turkey for Thanksgiving every year according to the National Turkey Federation, which translates to 46 million turkeys. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself where your turkey comes from?
Most folks will head to the frozen-foods section of their local grocery store and pick up the cheapest big-brand turkey available. They might have even earned a free one through a rewards program. But just like with lunches, the same goes for holiday birds: there’s no such thing as a free turkey. That grocery-store bird comes with significant long-term costs – not only for human health and the environment but also for animal welfare.
The price must be paid, and it is: by people, animals, and the planet.
Luckily, there is a better way. Enter your local farmer.
The Journey Begins with a New Flock
Since 2004, Ayrshire Farm has been raising turkeys on its regenerative pastures the right way: with ample space to roam, unlimited access to fresh food and water, and natural habitats in which to thrive. Farming this way is a little harder and a bit more expensive, but the results are much tastier and healthier than their mass-produced counterparts.
The process begins every year with the arrival of a new baby-turkey flock during a carefully calculated window in early summer. If the chicks come too late in the summer, they won’t have enough time to grow for the holidays. Too early, and they’ll exceed the capacity of most home ovens. The first group of babies – or poults – landed at Ayrshire Farm this year on June 26. The poults must be picked up from their Pennsylvania hatchery and brought to their new home within 24 hours of being born. Their first stop is the farm’s brooder house, where they’ll stay for four weeks.
Turkey poults mill about the brooder house at Ayrshire Farm where they receive continual monitoring for four weeks.
The first seven to 10 days of a poult’s life are the most fragile. They’ll need to be kept at a temperature around 95 degrees, protected from predators, and receive fresh water and food. Chris Windham, the farm’s resident turkey caretaker, checks on the newborns often throughout these vulnerable days, giving them fresh pine shavings, making sure they have proper ventilation, and taking readings of the ambient temperature and ammonia level in the brooder to make sure the conditions are ideal. In a commercial setting, turkeys don’t receive this level of care, Windham notes.
After this initial period in the brooder, the young turkeys head to a small barn nearby where they’ll stay for another four weeks. At this stage in the their lives, the birds are starting to look more like turkeys rather than fluffy chicks – but also a bit like the dinosaurs from which they’re descended. During daytime hours, the turkeys have free access to roam between the barn and the outdoors. Then, at night, they’ll be brought inside where they can roost and have protection from the elements and from predators.
Young turkeys start to get daytime outdoor access at four weeks old, then move out to pasture full-time in another month.
Just around the time these birds are ready to move out to pasture, a second flock of newborn poults arrives at the farm – this year, on Aug. 6. This group helps meet the needs of farm customers looking for a smaller turkey or, perhaps, a turkey for Christmas.
Living Naturally on Open Pastures
On a mild fall day, farm manager Chris Damewood is checking on Ayrshire’s flock of 435 turkeys. They’re friendly and curious – well known among the farm’s employees for running up to cars and people to gobble excitedly at new sights and sounds. On this day, the flock is scattered about their pasture in small groups: some relaxing under trees, others grazing or picking at grubs. It’s the way farming should be, says Damewood.
“They’re able to use their natural instincts,” he says. “You get to see them act like wild turkeys. They roost and graze for bugs – they get interaction with each other, with people on the farm and with other animals. You don’t see that in commercial farms.”
After they leave the barn, Ayrshire Farm’s turkeys live full-time on open pasture in plots ranging from 1.5 to 2 acres. They have access to trees and mobile roosting houses, flowing water via automatic troughs, free-choice Certified Organic grains, and an unlimited buffet of fresh greens and foraged grubs.
Every one to two weeks, depending on the weather or pasture conditions, the farm crew moves their fencing to an adjacent plot, allowing the birds to dine on new forage while giving the land a chance to recover and reap the benefits of recently deposited manure. As with all of Ayrshire Farm’s livestock operations, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, with animals and people giving back to the land in equal measure for what’s been taken. Every year the turkeys are raised on a different section of the farm – and it shows.
“The field where we had them last year is just so lush,” Windham says. The farm’s Shire horses and heritage-breed cattle have, at different points in the past year, been happy benefactors of those turkeys’ contributions.
As a Certified Humane and USDA Organic farm, much of the turkeys’ standards of living are dictated by regulation, but it’s something the farm embraces as commonsense farming. Ensuring that turkeys have sufficient drinker space (0.5 linear inches to 1.00 linear inches, depending on age and gender), for example, or appropriately sized perches (20 to 150 centimeters) are just sound measures. And, in an industry awash with unregulated terms like “all natural” and “cage free,” being able to place the Certified Humane and USDA Organic seals on its turkeys provides a level of transparency for Ayrshire Farm’s customers. Those who are interested can read the Certified Humane turkey standards here and the USDA Organic poultry standards here.
“They’re being raised right and getting the same level of standards as all our other animals,” Damewood says.
As a Certified Humane farm, Ayrshire is committed to the well-being of its turkeys by providing feeders and water sources that are the right height for their age and are easily accessible without overcrowding
Another certification of which Ayrshire Farm is proud: Certified Predator Friendly. It’s a designation that boils down to existing peacefully with the local wildlife and prohibiting lethal methods of control. When it comes to protecting turkeys, the first line of defense is electrified poultry netting – a type of mobile fencing that’s moved along with the turkeys whenever they rotate to new pasture. It’s secured in place with landscape staples and emits a low-voltage shock to foxes and coyotes looking for an easy meal. Fencing is one of the most effective tools for deterring land predators, but free-ranging turkeys are also arial prey – subject to attacks from hawks, owls, and other raptors. For this, the farm has employed “Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Men,” like the kind you see at car dealerships. They serve a bit of fun and function, scaring off predators naturally while giving the farm a quirky look. Shade cloth extending out from the roosting houses has also proven successful at deterring owl attacks from above, and an outdoor radio (usually tuned to a talk station), also helps keep critters at bay.
As a Certified Predator Friendly farm, Ayrshire takes extra steps to keep turkeys safe — without harming local wildlife. These include, from left, electrified poultry netting, “air dancers,” and protection from arial predators in the form of shade cloth.
The Hidden Cost of Factory-Farmed Turkeys
Meanwhile, somewhere else in America, millions of turkeys are living a not-so-great life. They are confined to crowded spaces with little room to move, exposed to artificial lighting, and given minimal or no access to the outdoors.
“Those turkeys don’t even have room to turn around,” Damewood says, “and outdoor access means asphalt or gravel.”
Other issues arise from commercial breeds of turkeys, the most common of which is the Broad Breasted White. These and similar turkeys have been modified over the last 100 years to generate a higher percentage of breast meat with shorter breast bones, producing birds in such great disproportions that they must be artificially inseminated. Selection for this trait leaves them flightless and prone to health issues related to being overweight (such as heart problems and respiratory failure). Conventional turkeys are treated by large meat companies as mere commodities, raised and sold for profit within a linear, extractive system. It’s no wonder they keep their birds indoors full-time and resort to antibiotics and steroids. There’s no other choice.
Over the last 20 years, Ayrshire Farm has raised a number of heritage-breed turkeys, descended from wild birds. More recently, it has focused solely on Broad Breasted Bronzes, a cross between domestic turkeys brought to the Americas by colonists and the native eastern wild turkeys they encountered. These birds retain the heritage bloodline while delivering fantastic flavor and the ideal ratio of light to dark meat preferred by modern consumers.
Ayrshire Farm’s Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys are a cross between domesticated European turkeys and native eastern wild turkeys from the Americas.
Another noticeable difference between Ayrshire Farm’s turkeys and commercial turkeys comes at the end of their life. Most conventional turkeys are processed mechanically using methods that create a traumatic experience for the birds. They are first loaded onto large trucks and transported long distances to centralized meatpacking facilities, where slaughter is often carried out at high speeds using automated systems, such as hanging them on mechanical chains.
Ayrshire Farm’s turkeys, by contrast, are processed just a short walking distance from where they’re raised. Each bird is moved by Ayrshire Farm employees and processed by hand right on the property in a UDSA-inspected facility, reducing stress on the animals and keeping carbon emissions at a minimum.
Each individual bird is examined by a USDA inspector before heading into a brine where they are cooled to a safe temperature in less than eight hours. They’re processed just days before Thanksgiving so there’s no need to freeze the birds, resulting in superior taste and texture compared to grocery-store fare. Customers also get the added benefit of not having to worry about defrosting their turkey before Thanksgiving Day.
A Better End for a Better Bird
An outsider might wonder if this stage of the process is difficult for Windham, after spending months fretting about their care. Not so, he says. Instead, he feels an immense sense of pride: pride in knowing these turkeys have been raised right, that they’ve lived in comfort, and that folks throughout the local area are being nourished by good, clean food.
“We also get a lot of unsolicited comments from the USDA inspectors about how nice our turkeys are and how we operate,” he adds. If anyone knows, they know.
Whatever turkeys aren’t sold go into storage or are used at Hunter’s Head Tavern, the farm’s own restaurant just down the road in Upperville.
In a world where convenience often trumps quality, Ayrshire Farm stands as a reminder that good farming practices matter. For those who choose an Ayrshire Farm turkey, Thanksgiving becomes more than just a holiday — it’s a celebration of tradition, quality, and respect for the land, farmers and animals.
Ready to start a new tradition? Start here.