The COST of Raising Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey
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- Опубліковано 15 лис 2017
- A year ago, we decided that we could raise our own Thanskgiving turkey. One year later, this was our experience, how much it costed us, the equipment we used, and if we will do it again.
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BUSINESSES REFERENCED IN VIDEO:
SCHLECT HATCHERY: www.schlechthatchery.com
VALLEY FEED & SUPPLY: www.valleyfeedandsupplyco.com
PRODUCTS USED TO RAISE TURKEYS:
Premier 1 Solar Charger: amzn.to/2A4sBvl
Premier 1 Electric Netting: amzn.to/2ijSTlf
Shrink-wrap Bags: amzn.to/2iZLgRe
VIDEOS REFERENCED IN VIDEO:
Chickens in the Jungle: • Chickens In The Jungle
The Stress-Free Chicken Tractor Build: goo.gl/C3MWff
First Time Butchering Turkeys: • First Time Butchering ...
Turkey Processing Equipment: • Turkey Processing Equi...
Homegrown Turkey Celebration: • Homegrown Turkey Celeb...
Turkey Playlist: goo.gl/mBqMQR
MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE:
Jack Elphick - Rotations 2
Music From Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com)
VIDEO EQUIPMENT WE USE:
Camera / Cannon G7X: amzn.to/2xDVU8M
Editing Software / Final Cut Pro
Tripod / Jobi Gorilla Pod: amzn.to/2xuPSbr
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: / whitehouseonthe
Instagram: / whitehouseonthehill
Twitter: / whitehouseonthe
Thanks for watching!
thank you for doing the cost breakdown, that's really helpful when considering whether it's "worth it" to raise your own food.
+bev lower - I appreciate the compliment! Thanks for watching. Good luck if you decide to do it yourself!
thanks. been dabblin' w/the turkeys. ate a BB White I raised (my 1st) last year & currently have 2 Nar', a Royal Palm & a Blue Slate. Didn't like the poor health of the BB White tho' it was good eating.
+bev lower - while our broad breasted whites looked kind of crazy as well, they were very good at eating grass alongside the feed to help us save on feed costs, and they grew to a hug size (30+ lbs in 5 months). I'm interested to see how big our royal palms get this year. If we can hatch out their offspring and grow them to eat, I'm with you, that would be a more self-sustainable way to raise and grow our own food, even if it isn't as enormous as the broad breasted white turkeys.
Good job! Many years ago, plus a couple of decades, a friend brought us a turkey his family had raised and processed. It was over 30# (I want to remember 36#) and barely fit in my oven with the rack on the lowest setting... What a tasty bird that was, and leftover meat to make tons of stuff out of!
Thanksgiving will be so much more special having your own home raised bird and produce to grace the table.
+ubetchya78 - definitely!
That was so helpful! I've been considering adding them to my poultry farming but wasnt sure. I just ordered a surprise poultry box and am kind of hoping I get some now!
Good work!
30+lbs is a HUGE bird. Leftovers for days!
+Rick Mitchell - yes!!! I can’t wait!
IMHO, leftovers are the best part!👍👍. Driving for 2 hours to the wife's family in NJ is such a buzzkill that the day after is so much more appreciated.
Mom said when we were on the farm..
Those 30+# turkeys she had split. Half. Thanks Giving. Other half. Christmas
Wow! Nicely done! Great breakdown and presentation of this info.
I love how thorough this is!
This spring we're getting our first chickens. When we buy more land in a couple of years we're going to try turkeys. Thanks for the breakdown on costs. This was very informative.
+jan henderson - you’re welcome! Good luck with the birds in the spring!
I wish I found this channel before...i watched all your videos in just 2 days...i was told that is dedication 😂
My son raised a broad breasted bronze. We fed him well. He wouldn't fit in our large electric roster so we weighed him. 42 pounds fully dressed and he was the best tasting turkey ever! Raising bourbon reds this year. I hope they are good too!
+Sandy Rees - 42!! So huge! Our bronze only got up to mid 20’s. They are delicious, can’t wait to enjoy another one next week!
This video was so informative I didn't even mind all the wind. Great job!
thankx man its a great sharing of idea and knowledges u did there
Thanks for the breakdowns. This has been one of the more useful vids I've found on any such topic. Plus, your vid production, audio, and soundtrack are absolutely fantastic!! Made for an enjoyable AND educational experience. Do u go through a 3rd party to produce these vids?
Hoping and praying I can start raising my own in the next couple months. Great Video!!
here in nj , to get a pasture raised, NON gmo oganic turkey - from the family cow in PA, it is 5.99 a lb. we had the idea to raise our own last yr, got a heritage breed Beltsville White eggs from Illinois, hatched them, and fell in love with their personalties. so the 7 that htached , well a yr later they are still here , and we love them, i cant see me processing them, they are smarter, friendlier and more social then chickens, so i was a failure at raising for us to eat, i still feed them all organicly, and have free pasture run, but i can now sell their eggs for others to raise so there are more of this breed thats on the critical list... so cudos to you for being able to go thru with it, you did what i cant....... blessings-
+mai pi - awesome! They were all so friendly, you’re right about that. The males all got pretty tough to handle towards the end, but the females were all sweeties. We’re raising 2 Royal Palms now as pets, and hopefully to breed some more and they are a treat!
White House on the Hill really??? your males didnt like to be handled or did they become aggressive??? my 2 boys, Louie and Bubba LOVE to be cuddled, one loves his head rubbed and 1 loves his chest rubbed. they both get picked up and put on our laps and have mommie one on one petting time. we started that from the time they were born, even tho they are like 20+ lbs we still do it to keep them in check. they will follow me all over, and get right in there when i am doing anything they deem fun. but i so love having them , have a blessed day , and i am sure you can get a higher price for your birds next time.... blessings
+mai pi - they followed us and seemed to like us. But they were so aggressive with each other. The ladies were really sweet. Hopefully our Royals Palms we’re raising now will be awesome with us like your guys were.
Realllly great information! Thanks for sharing!
+Amy Fewell - The Fewell Homestead - thanks, Amy!
All things considered great job!👍👍
Thank you so much for the great video! We are hoping to raise turkeys starting this year in the John Suscovich tractor too. How many turkeys do raise in one tractor?
+Lindsey Nelson - we started with 15 turkeys last year in one tractor, after 2 months, we divided them into 2 tractors by breed (broad breasted bronze in one tractor and white turkeys in the other), and by 4-5 months, we had about 4 in a tractor as we started processing them. Worked out pretty well. We do have videos throughout last summer showing them in their tractors if you want to browse through how we did it.
You your wife and kids are amazing!!
Love all your videos!
+jazlyn fonseca - thank you so much!
Awesome video, Jake! It's got me so pumped to raise some turkeys of my own! If everything keeps going to plan here I'll be bringing something to the meet up to show that can significantly decrease your feed cost. Just crossing my fingers I can get it finished in time for Tuesday! Haha
+The More You Grow - awesome, looking forward to it!
Nice, eye opening video. Thanks for sharing.
+Jim Claire - thanks, Jim!
Awesome videos. Very instructive. I would like to use this to raise poultry in Costa Rica. We have a large piece of land with cattle at the moment. Thinking of diversifying in the near future. We currently live in Southern California. But we are considering moving there in 2-5 years.
Just an idea to cut cost on building outside stuff, and you have a lumber mill around see if you can get rough cut lumber. I get mine for 23 cents a 2x4. Great video thanks for the info. 👍
+our nova Scotia adventure - super tip! That would be a cost savings if we could find a lumber mill.
Great video...loved the price breakdowns & your tractors...looks like someone else loves the John Sascovich way :)
+Oneda Zinn - definitely a fan of any chicken tractor that I can walk into and move easily. But yes, John Suscovich was my first introduction to meat birds... I'm a fan!
me too! :)
Hello sir, thanks for the great video. How much does a day old turkey eat per day and for how many weeks before you change its feed?
Love your videos!
+Melissa Williamson - thanks you so much!
Hi, from alway from West Michigan. I just found your video. This is my 5 year in raising my own turkeys. I started just like you. But in my backyard. I enjoy raising them. I just do 3 or 4 turkeys. One day I want to do your way. The best turkey I ever had was a bourbon red turkey. Just not a lot of meat.
Thanks for the informatiom
👍👍👍👍👍
Good video and I learned much.
+GrandmaSewHappy Homestead - awesome!
Great video! Thanks so much for taking the time to cover this subject so well and for providing the cost information. Very useful!
Unfortunately as you show in the video, raising most any kind of birds on a very small scale hobby farm typically isn't a good use of your time for the dollar returns you get. Who wants to work for only $4 per hour? If you do it because you enjoy the process and love life on the farm, then by all means enjoy your hobby. I'm all for you. It's no different than enjoying any other hobby, such as playing golf, fishing, or bowling. Just don't expect to earn a reasonable return for your labor.
When I did the math after buying my land, I discovered that raising animals of most any kind was generally not profitable enough to justify doing it on my 20 acre hobby farm. Growing various kinds of crops however, such as fruits, nuts, organic vegetables, etc. is profitable.
That's why if I want to put a free ranged turkey on the table a couple times per year the option I find MUCH more appealing than cleaning manure out of turkey cages or moving turkey tractors around every day is to put on my camo face paint, pick up my turkey calls, and sitting in the woods right at daylight during turkey season.
The turkeys come to feed in my clover food plots I plant on my land for deer and I can easily walk into my woods to a good spot. Might fire off a couple dollars of ammo to kill the birds but other than that my cost is minimal. It's true that I don't get paid any money to hunt so my labor is uncompensated but boy oh boy the hours of fun I get turkey hunting is well worth it!
Wild turkeys are not fat birds like caged farm raised turkeys are, even the ones that are free ranged on pasture. But they still taste great and since I am a one person household, a couple of turkeys harvested per year off my land is plenty for me. Plus, I don't have to bother with all the time and expense of raising the birds.
I've concluded that hunting and trapping wild game is a far less costly means of procuring the couple hundred pounds of meat I might want to eat in a year. I can readily harvest deer, turkeys, squirrels, ducks, raccoons, rabbits, and other wildlife by hunting or trapping them. Trapping is extremely productive and costs very little.
While I can't catch fish on my own land, there are plenty of public fishing lakes nearby. Plus there are frogs to gig, crawfish to catch, and even snapping turtles to catch and eat. All of these critters, and more, are good to eat and free for the taking.
I'm not knocking the concept of self sufficiency by raising your own animals on your own land. I'm pretty much self sufficient too but in doing so, I eat mostly wild game instead of domestically raised farm animals. I'm simply making a point that the same land may already have enough animals to readily provide the food you need to be self sufficient without having to spend so much time and money trying to raise domesticated animals on the farm.
Hunting and gathering, and then basic agriculture, were the original means mankind had to obtain food and that is still one of the very best and most cost efficient ways to feed yourself. I'm not putting down anyone who wants to raise domesticated animals to be self sufficient. I'm just advocating for achieving food self sufficiency by eating a more natural diet of fish, wild game, foraged plants, and organic raised veggies, fruits, and nuts.
+Trehan Creek Outdoors - thank you!
This is the exact comment I was looking for. Thank you for you time. Lots of info in this one
Thanks for the breakdown. Wow how times have changed. I can't buy organic ground turkey at the grocery store for $3 per pound anymore!
I had 50 turkeys it's very excellent video was showing
Farmer's wages. Good information about your turkey growing experience. I know those big birds love to eat!...and poop. Really big poopers.~Janette
+The Neals' Homestead - they ate a lot of grass atleast, probably saved us 200-400 lbs of feed. Probably could’ve used less feed and more grass if we had less in each tractor. Usually had 5-7 in a tractor in the last month or two.
Thanks for the referral to Valley Feed in Bonner Springs.
+elizebeth parker - You’re welcome! Say hi to Neil, the owner!
You should try Narragansett turkeys for your thanksgiving turkey
We have raised ducks and chickens for our own meat. It has been a very inpowering experience. We have even traded neighbors for rabbit and pork with the ducks :)
+Samantha McBride - very nice! How do you cook your duck meat? We haven't found it to be as good as we had hoped.
I found this video very interesting. I own a turkey farm myself and I can totally understand the financial breakdown you gave. I'd love to visit your farm sometime. What's the location?
Very helpful-
+T Berry - thanks!
Im actually doing something similar, but i decided to buy midget turkeys. Theyre a bit more expensive but should be cheaper to rear, i have 5 acres to grow them pasteurized, use much less feed, thats the idea. I think that ill have less issues selling because of the size, 20lb toms 15lb hens alive. Ill definitely double check on my profits to compare.thanks. very helpful video!!
+Gerardo Maldonado - that sounds like a perfect size for selling. We're thinking about breeding and raising some of our Royal Palm turkeys this year for Thanksgiving... would produce 10-15 lb turkeys since that's what all our customers wanted. We like bigger, but we can let 1 or 2 get a little larger. Good luck!
I want turkeys too!!! Any tips?
I watch all the Ads keep up the good work
Great job!! It's nice to know the price break down just incase it makes it off our someday list.
+St. Fiacre's Farm - !! What do you guys have? Chickens, goats, sheep, I think? What else would you want to have in the future?
White House on the Hill- All of it lol We only have about an acre of pasture so that limits us. I think we could handle some meat birds, a free turkeys and we would love a family milk cow. My husband grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana so some day a cattle ranch!
+St. Fiacre's Farm - sounds good, I like the plan!
Did u have them lay eggs ? And how often do turkeys lay eggs
Happy thanksgiving
My parents use to get theres through a farmer around here, you went on a list longest client got the biggest bird. Largest one i heard about was 44lbs😱
This video definitely makes me want turkeys next year... this year isn't a option due to a cackle surprise (so mabye one or two turkey this year.) Arriving in july...
I don't raise turkeys myself. I do however kill 2 during the spring turkey season.I always keep one for Thanksgiving.
I think having experienced raising turkeys will help you cut costs next time. It’s worth it.
+Gerry Marmee - I hope so... atleast we’ll be better prepared for the fighting. Costs will be cut by being able to grow them for 1-2 months less since the customers wanted smaller turkeys.
College kids, when asked about farmers, said farmers were unnecessary and harmed the environment. They stated that they could "just buy their food at the grocery store or local fast food".
We grow out own everything. Pigs eat 330lbs of grain and cost a fortune to raise. You have to keep them wormed as well or end up with tough meat. Don't forget to worm those turkeys. We use goat dewormer fenbendazole. Dose is .7ml per 50lbs mixed in drinking water for 5 days.
You don't grow turkeys, you raise turkeys
32 lbs? Wow! Can’t beat that.
+DOWNTOWN TO SMALLTOWN FARMING - worked out great for our Thanksgiving! But it was hard to sell our 3 other birds over 30 lbs. Lesson learned.
Did you eat the 32 lb bird? Was he a tough bird? I always heard when they get that big the meat is tough. How did he get so much bigger than your other turkeys? Was he a bully who ate more than his share of the feed? Since you know most people want about a 15 lb turkey will you start raising the next group a little later or harvest them sooner so they don't get so big.
+Donna Gribbins - we had the 24 lb and he was amazing! Eating the 32 lb one tomorrow for Thanksgiving... we’ll let you know on that one. There were 5 birds from 29-32 lbs, so the ones we let grow for 5 months all got large. Yes, next year we’ll butcher most around 15 lbs so our customers are more comfortable with the size.
Hi.... Thank you for sharing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🎥👍👍👍
Trying the mini white turkey
Marvin Hyatt - Great, good luck with those!
GOOOD JOB....
+Laurie Flores - thanks!
your welcomes...
How many acres do you think you need to raise, say 15 turkeys? Anyone?
So I noticed this video is five years old and the price of feed has skyrocketed since then. Are you still raising turkeys and what is the cost of feed for you now? Is it still worth it?
I live in a very large city and want to do this. I have three chickens.
Goob jon
which grew bigger... the browns or the whites?
+Robin C - Broad Breasted Whites... the males were all over 30 lbs. The Broad Breasted Bronze were between 20-25 lbs at full size.
U know the black oil sun flower seeds will grow .. recycle that seed
Youre in the Kansas City area? Greetings from Dodge City.
+Great Western Gardens - yep, near St Joe, Missouri, an hour north of KC. We went to Dodge City a year or two ago for a wedding. Thanks for watching our channel!
White House on the Hill Oh very nice! I lived IN St Joseph between '06 and '08. And my pleasure. Your channel is a highlight.
+Great Western Gardens - small world! Thanks! What brought you to our channel?
White House on the Hill Im just always browsing and stumbled on your channel a week or so ago. I got pretty lax on my own youtube attempt this last year so Im just out looking for inspiration.
+ Great Western Gardens - very good... hope we can gotcha fired back up again!
Wish I could get one of your turkeys! We get a fresh free range grass fed turkey from our local Butcher every Thanksgiving. They are the best tasting birds! They run $3.99 a lb and are worth every penny! I will never eat another Franken Food turkey even if it’s free.
Michael Stevens That sounds like a good price!👍
+Michael Stevens - we probably sold ourselves a little short, but we didn’t want to scare our friends away with too high of a price. Good to know you can taste the difference!
That was a fun video.
I contributed to a coworker raising turkeys for us for thanksgiving. It was seven birds. We had to help process the young lads. I was the man who specifically dispatched the beautiful birds. I will never forget holding the first one and being with him as I became a harvester. He was a beautiful bird.
A simple and intuitive program "Turkey feed consumption calculator" for turkey enter the
Awwww 😞
I don't know how you got your feed costs so low. If I'm buying 1,000 lbs of feed I'm paying about $750! I'm guessing you weren't buying organic feed but I just wish I could figure out how to lower my feed costs in Idaho
+Candice Christensen - correct, I cannot find organic feed for the price I'm getting, but I'm good with it, for how much grass our turkeys were eating. Even if I could get organic feed at a decent price, I don't know if we could still find customers at a higher price point.
True if only feed wasn't so expensive
I truly believe that your Turkey are much better than butterball I wished you shipped.
Ok, so the numbers are in. Of course the value of knowing the source is always something to be taken into consideration, but how to value it? My theory would be as follows: If we consider that minimum wage is around $10 per hour and you said that there was something on the order of 90 hours invested in time raising the turkeys, then if you take the the profit away from the minimum cost to raise the turkeys ($10x90)-(aprox $350) = $550. With that theory your 3 "Free" birds cost you $550 dollars.
Is that reasonable?
Just looking at it from the point of view of ... If you had not raised any turkeys you could have worked a minimum wage job for those same hours and had $900 (pre tax) and gone to the store you mentioned and just bought 3 high quality turkeys. How much would those turkeys have cost you? Would you have had cash left over to buy all the fixings and been financially better off?
Did I mention my ecenomics background! There's so many ways to look at this but simplicity and the "what if" I had done none of this stuff is usually the easiest! No pun intended but .... Food for thought!
Opportunity Cost is often overlooked when thinking "was it worth it"! Lastly, your greatest expense wasn't the food but the cost(value) of your labor, and that's based on minimum wage! This is why most folks don't raise turkeys anymore!
All that said, I would probably consider doing it myself just to know where they came from! BUT...they had better taste incredible for me to do it again!👍
+Little White Dory - well said! Of course it was worth far beyond the minimal income we drew and getting a free Thanksgiving main course. Knowing where our food comes from is why we do it all at this point... but I figured the actual costs would be useful to people on the fence about raising turkeys. If I left our turkeys to be factored in, we made nearly $7/hr... and not having to buy it from the store is a relief!
Ok, I will be waiting to hear about how good it tastes come Black Friday!
What about a 1K episode or at least a plug... Take some credit for your accomplishments 😀
+Little White Dory - I was hoping to gather some giveaways goodies... I’ll get there, just may be a week or two
+White House on the Hill are giving out biscuits π w π please...
I just got Turkey but it’s not for thanksgiving😃
I got 10 turkeys that cost $8 a piece one month ago
I wanna do it....that is why I am here....
Where/How did you find buyers?
+Anna k - word of mouth. Many were friends of ours from church. Some were friends of family. A few came from customers of my father-in-law because we ran the turkeys behind his auto shop and people would ask what animals were back there. We got the last few moved through Facebook posts to old friends of mine from where I grew up.
I'm hoping to teach myself and my family to live off our land
I think it's worth it. You know what's going into your bird...
And they lay eggs to don't they?
Cost is about 50 dollars for one from the store because when it comes time to harvest there's no way. Ours just chripped and looked right at us and I said no fucking way, put that turkamurk back in the crate, she's coming home. She is our pet now going on 3 years
You raised your turkeys for 22 wks?! No wonder you went through so much feed!
+Lauretta Barker - the next year we raised them in 3 months since none of our customers wanted turkeys over 15 lbs. Much more cost effective.
Thank you for responding. Yes I plan on raising to about 15lbs. Seems feed to meat conversation starts to decline a bit after that.
Heartless
So over 36 bucks per bird. 🤔
+D S - when we sell them? More than that. 30 lb bird x $3/lb
Just started raising Ducks for #1 peace after work and #2 eggs. But I started thinking. Shit I got 10 acres so why shouldn't I turn my land into a nice farm?
Jack Mehov - Ya, I would go for it!
Doesn't Turkeys lay eggs?
😘😘😘😍😍
+Yahya Towaqeen - 😀
I really hope you don't teach math friend. An average is the sum of all the integers divided by the number of integers added together. You provided the range of weights not the average buddy.
I hope the „schlecht“ in schlechthatchery is not german 😅 because it basically means bad.
Poor turkey. Tofurkey is far less cruel
I wouldn't Want a turkey bigger than 20lbs just because the people I live with.
Just watching your Video reminds me just how much I hated the winds living in your area. Sorry I just wasn't a fan of that dry cold air.
+William Pellant - haha! The wind was a challenge on this one. Working on making a wind filter for my camera today.
Can you give us more details on the type of peacocks there are
Like if you agree
+Basketball Beast - our peachicks? They are India Blues
You have Indian Blue, Java Green and Congo. Congo are not sold anywhere. Green Java are beautiful. Much prettier than Indian Blue. There are mixed Peacocks though, white and so.
If I did this I’d name the turkey and help it escape when my parents want to kill it
+my favorite food is pasta yum yum - do you not eat meat? We do, so we raise our own animals to know where our food comes from.
How do you raise these babies and then kill them? Turkeys are awesome and funny if you give them a chance they will follow you around like your pet dog. Scratching my head that people can feed and build trust with an animal and then murder them. Look at them in a different way. They are really beautiful creatures that are inquisitive, curious, and smart
It's easy when your mindset is directed toward the end product and keep set on that their purpose is for food and not a pet. Butchering animals isn't for everyone but for those of us that choose it, it's not hard to set the intention and stay with it until the end. The end product is extremely rewarding. Personally I feel like every person who elects to eat meat should be part of the process in some capacity. If they aren't comfortable with it, someone will be. But maybe they shouldn't eat it unless they are willing to accept the order of things for meat eaters.
It's much cheaper to just not eat a birds corpse.
Sure, life’s cheaper when you don’t spend money on food. But you’ve got to eat something so we want to raise the best food possible ourselves rather than have no control over the quality of food we are buying.
Don’t butcher your birds