00:00 - Hello everyone, welcome to Growing Greater Gauntless.

00:03 - My name is Renee and I'm from Glenstone, Pennsylvania.

00:07 - I'm also a choreographer here in Bontore, Columbia County.

00:12 - And my son Paul here, he's going to do a demonstration today about everything that

00:17 - we have learned about turkeys in the last two years. We certainly are not

00:22 - experts but I'm telling you when you get to do something hands-on, you learn fast.

00:27 - So two years ago, I received an email from the Penn State Extension

00:34 - office and they told us that there was going to be an inaugural turkey market

00:41 - turkey show at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. It was in January of 20.5 and I got

00:48 - no I was going to find all of and I only got two turkeys in August of 2024.

00:55 - We picked them up. We brought two home. We raised them to four market maturity and

01:01 - then we went down the Pennsylvania Farm Show. That first year there were only about

01:05 - 30 turkeys in the first show I believe. I think this year there were around 60.

01:11 - Don't put me on that but I do know that this year there are 100 turkeys

01:18 - that are going to be entered for the market show at the P.A. Farm Show and two of

01:22 - them was along the fall. So we're going to kick it off to Paul here and let him

01:27 - talk a little bit about the ride-resting right. Everybody on my name is Paul

01:34 - Ghosty on 13 years old and these are my five turkeys. They are broad-grested white

01:40 - turkeys. It is a domesticated breed and they are mainly bred and used for me.

01:45 - So these turkeys you don't typically see out in the wild and there are some

01:50 - differences. How many people have ever seen a wild turkey out here in the

01:53 - countryside? That's right. We've seen them along the road. They fly. They're darker

01:59 - color. So tell us a little bit of how the broad-brested white differs from the

02:05 - mild turkeys we see out in the country. Yeah so the main thing that we usually

02:10 - notice first is the difference of the color of the feathers. So the reason why the

02:15 - broad-grested white turkeys have a different colored feathers is because they

02:19 - were bred so that the pin feathers which is marks that are left on the meat

02:24 - after their process are a lot less and less noticeable and more appealing to

02:31 - your buyer in the store. Right so when you got there and you're picking out your

02:35 - Thanksgiving turkey that nice white smooth skin is what they want to see. It's

02:40 - much more difficult to have that nice white skin on a wild turkey. How about the

02:48 - market size? What are we looking for in a turkey? A commercial turkey like one of

02:53 - these? So the main thing with the broad-brested white it's in the name they

02:57 - they're bred to have a large breast which and to go very quickly and to be the

03:02 - most appealing in the stores. That's right how many people here like the breast

03:07 - meat over the leg meat. Anybody breast meat me too so it's nice to have that

03:12 - nice large breast that can be sliced and broken for the Thanksgiving dare.

03:18 - So let's take a look here there's some very noticeable differences between

03:24 - two of the larger ones. I noticed two are larger and then the three smaller cookies.

03:30 - Can you explain this for us? So the two larger turkeys here are male

03:35 - turkeys and the other two are female turkeys. And they have special names or

03:43 - their special things that you're looking at that are different.

03:45 - So the male turkeys are called tops and the female turkeys are referred to as men.

03:54 - The male turkeys are going to get a lot larger. They're going to have more distinct

03:58 - features along their neck and just a lot different from the hands. Great so

04:04 - we're going to take you through and look at the different specific characteristics

04:10 - of the turkey and some of them have known functions for their survivability,

04:18 - keeping them healthy and well but then there's also a few characteristics that

04:23 - nobody really knows the reason for it. So Paul why don't we take one of the

04:26 - tops and Paul's going to show you how specifically when we're at the farm

04:32 - show how you need to get in trouble of your your turkey. So you might not do

04:37 - this if you wrote that commercial turkey facility but I'm going to show you

04:42 - how he eats his Tom nice and calm and he's nearing down and he's going to show

04:48 - you the different aspects of and just start right ahead there. Yeah so I have my

04:55 - knee right in front of the turkey's breast so that he knows that he really

04:59 - can't go anywhere right now and the first thing you'll see along the top of his

05:04 - head are these big bumps and just ridges in on his neck and head and these are

05:10 - called caroncles. They are used for temperature control and they can get they

05:16 - can change color color depending on the turkey's mood with when he's a little

05:20 - bit more aggravated they would get more red because there's more blood in them.

05:26 - So and then for the next thing you'll see this long thing on him it is called

05:33 - the snood. So the snood is like the caroncles it can get larger as more blood

05:38 - flows into it and it is used as in attraction

05:43 - towards other female heads. It also

05:46 - has a function of farewell regulation so it helps keep them through when it's

05:52 - normal and there's definitely a noticeable difference depending on that he's

05:59 - excited or you know feel fair the peace may be. How about under the beat fair at

06:05 - long red partners that's called a rattle right? Yeah so the water is used just for

06:12 - another thermal regulation item without the feathers on it it helps release a

06:17 - lot of body heat and regulate his temperature.

06:21 - So then I can see his beat fair

06:23 - it's probably what I want to see specifically do with his beat. So with his

06:28 - beat of course they can eat with it it's also a defense mechanism but they also

06:33 - can arrange and clean their feathers with it. And there's a special term called

06:37 - for when they've rethinking like they're so stretchy

06:40 - their head can stretch around and it's called

06:43 - between those feathers and hear how any like bugs or you know maybe dirt that

06:48 - gets caught in there that's right.

06:51 - How about the did you have any teeth like how do

06:56 - they do you know turkeys do not have any teeth and then just point out his

07:04 - ears and his eyes because they don't have ears like we do. No so their ears are

07:09 - actually holes in their head on like the or ears that stick out from our head and

07:14 - a lot of people can't see them but they are there.

07:33 - So that is his beard it's a very stiff like kind of paintbrush texture it's

07:41 - really just used I mean it's just a feature of the turkey there really is no

07:45 - known use that the turkey uses this thing for. When you see them out in the

07:50 - wild one thing I've noticed is the beard that's right there on that front of

07:53 - that chest can be a lot longer. Now these turkeys are only about 16 weeks so

07:59 - they're a fair maximum for lifespan they're ready for commercial

08:03 - processing but one thing that we would notice and we learned this year and I'm

08:08 - not sure if it's definitely the case but early on we couldn't tell who was

08:14 - at home and who was ahead but we did notice that two out of the five out of

08:19 - more distinct beard growing in it was a little bit darker and a little bit longer

08:23 - in those two ended up being the palms so that might be a way of being able to

08:28 - show you and identify how old they are. How about those that feathers let's talk

08:32 - about his feathers. So the first feathers all go over is the wing feathers so

08:38 - there's three types of feathers on the wing you have the primary feathers which

08:41 - are the farthest down they usually get most of the beading from being dragged

08:45 - on the ground and just being brushed up against all types of things. Separating

08:51 - the primary feathers from the secondary feathers is the axial feather so the

08:55 - axial feather really just separates the two parts of the wing and acts as

09:01 - kind of just just so people can know what is happening and like what kind of

09:06 - feathers you're looking at and then with the secondary feathers these feathers

09:11 - are usually going to be very pretty. They have this coating on them that helps

09:16 - deflect rain and keep the bird dry. Talk about keeping a bird dry.

09:22 - These turkeys are a little bit dirty they've been the barn for quite a while.

09:25 - They've had their excitement of living out on pasture but when we get ready for farm

09:30 - show we've got to keep our turkeys clean and what was one of the best things

09:34 - about getting our turkeys ready for farm show. Believing they love bats.

09:41 - You got to be careful though they get so relaxed and that nice soapy warm water

09:46 - that they could they could sink so we had to make sure we took really good

09:50 - care of them. We had a warm bubble bath. We had a warm rinse bath and then they

09:56 - got the blow dryer the nice warm blow dryer and they were they look beautiful.

10:00 - Paul brought one hen down to the barbed show in January and he was six

10:06 - plates over all market heads. So how about these tail feathers because he

10:11 - used to starting to fan again and you can see this guy over here. He's in a full

10:15 - strut and he was trying to show these ladies how handsome he is.

10:20 - Yeah so with tail feathers all very like clean and healthy turkey should have 18.

10:26 - Now these toms have probably around 15

10:29 - they've lost a couple just because having two

10:32 - toms together they usually beat each other up a little bit but they're like

10:38 - my mom said they're mainly used for just attracting the heads. And then just

10:43 - there on his feet he's got these spurs on the back of his feet. What are those for?

10:48 - So the spurs can be used for better grip on slippery surfaces and defense.

10:56 - And it helps them scratch for food. Okay so let's talk a little bit about

11:01 - a showmanship. Now that we've seen the difference between a tom and a hen and

11:05 - all those meat character is six

11:07 - particularly on the tom's head. Let's talk a

11:10 - little bit about getting ready for the farm show. We are we would love to bring a

11:15 - turkey show here to Bloomberg but for now we're just gonna pretend we're having a

11:21 - show here. Tom has already held his parking in a position where he would be

11:28 - able to talk to the judge. Julie and Judge would come off the after about the

11:32 - different features and the wings just like you showed all of you. But when we get

11:36 - out into the ring with a turkey we're gonna talk a little bit about that but

11:45 - what are you doing you get home? Get your baby turkey home.

11:49 - Does anyone know the baby turkey's call? It's a pole.

11:53 - Not a chick but a pole. So tell them about a little bit about what you did to get

11:58 - ready. Once they the two baby bolts came in August. So as soon as you get home

12:04 - with your turkeys they should have a very warm temperature usually about 90 to

12:09 - 95 degrees. It should be dry bedding. They should have very good footing so they

12:15 - don't slip and injure themselves. They should have we use 30% protein pole

12:22 - starter and we usually feed that to them for around eight weeks to start and

12:28 - then they should have unlimited water. Like I said unlimited food and you

12:34 - should make sure that the temperature has to be really perfect.

12:54 - I think my favorite are the hands. I like the tongs but I don't know about you.

12:59 - It's too big. It won't fit the hand. I have not that problem before.

13:02 - We're going to show you some showmanship. Usually we have some more

13:10 - exhibitors with us but today they are working getting their steers and cows

13:17 - ready for the show at one o'clock. But when you show your turkey and if you

13:23 - saw the kids die at farm show they are guiding their turkey to showcase their

13:29 - turkey to a market turkey judge and we pretend that I'm the judge here all

13:35 - right now he is working and walking on the move. As you're doing this tell me

13:41 - what you're focusing up maybe a bit different. So the main thing with poultry

13:48 - showmanship is you should make sure you're keeping the bird in between you and

13:51 - the judge. They should be at a good gate just making sure that they look like

13:59 - they're carrying their weight well. Very good eye contact with the judge but I'm

14:04 - still keeping just slight glances at the bird and making sure I know where it

14:09 - is at all times. And then I'm going to give the different profiles of my

14:13 - bird from front to side and I can give the back as well.

14:22 - Really good. And then oftentimes we're eligible come through and ask the kids

14:26 - you know what percent feet are you feeding right now or you know how old your

14:30 - bird is. So it's not just about walking the bird around it's about knowing

14:35 - about your bird as well.

14:49 - And one thing we didn't talk about but it's pretty important to keep your

14:52 - your flock free from disease and keeping your areas clean. Making sure that if

14:58 - you crop in handy for poultry farms that you change your shoes just having a

15:03 - really good bio security plan for when you're raising your turkeys. This is

15:08 - something that anybody could do at home. I mean you do not need to be an expert.

15:11 - You just need a little bit of space and some will and 16 weeks with a with a

15:17 - market chicken. It's usually about eight

15:20 - weeks, but turkeys take a little bit longer.

15:28 - I'm going to say before we do that, one thing I forgot was all about flipping

15:33 - a bird. So the whole point for the the judge is to inspect the meat, right?

15:50 - So usually I will get down into the position that I was at and then when the

16:04 - judge asks me to put my bird, I will put their hat almost in between my legs.

16:16 - Okay, so I'll get them and I will put them their head in between my legs.

16:23 - He's not very, I think I did him yesterday. And then I'll get a firm grip right

16:29 - below the joint of their leg. And then I will put them, so the judge will then

16:37 - come along and inspect the breast meat. The breast meat is is that keel bone right

16:43 - down the center of the breast bone. They look to see how long, you know, they don't

16:47 - take a measuring stick, but they want to see how long the keel bone is. The longer

16:51 - the keel bone, that longer that turkey breast. So you can see one thing that I've

16:59 - learned is, again, when you're thinking about slicing turkey breast, you want to

17:02 - have as many nice slices that are thick and round. And from the judge that we

17:08 - learned last year at the foreshow, you almost want to have it a wider base, the

17:14 - bottom, and then it slowly tapers, but it doesn't taper be too thin here at the top.

17:21 - So we've learned quite a bit. I don't know if a lot of it's going to be genetics or

17:25 - feeding for both, but it don't be worried. He's completely fine right now. I'm very

17:32 - relaxed. And he's back up and at it. So that's how you flip your turkey at the

17:38 - foreshow to show. Can you put one of the hands just so you can see the

17:41 - difference in the size? Ideally, I know a lot of books prefer a hand because

17:47 - they are smaller. So looking at her right now, because if they have a guess, do a

17:51 - little turn, how many pounds she might be. And I know, I know someone might feel

18:06 - sad, but 15, 15, 16, 15, 16, 22, anybody else? 12. All right. Well, we're

18:13 - going to find out. Wow, guys. You were moving off. That's crazy. All right. Hey,

18:20 - guess this is what she is right now. You're close. Close the tune out going over like

18:28 - this place is right. 45. You had a rate the first time. She's 36. So pretty close. So

18:37 - anybody calculate 80% of 36 in your head? Are they smart and cancer? Yeah, it's like

19:01 - 32, 32. Yeah, I got 33 pounds. I'm 16. You're going to say she's probably between

19:12 - 20 to 31 pounds in the pot. But she wants to stay up there.

19:17 - She likes it. So anyway, we are the go seas.

19:21 - We live in the landfill.

19:22 - We have a cute little farm. Again, we are not the biggest

19:26 - experts in turkeys, but we've learned quite a bit. And we love coming here. We need to

19:29 - start fair. Thank you again for having us and be sure to supply the farm show this

19:35 - winter. And see us. It's the Monday of farm show.

19:38 - I want to be talking to 100 bucks this year.

19:41 - Or you'd probably see us on BCM meeting.

19:43 - And we have a look forward to it. So be sure

19:46 - to support all those Atkins. I really great week. Enjoy the fair. Thank you.

20:12 - [Music]