Turkey will highlight the menu on Thursday when millions of Americans sitting down to Thanksgiving Day meals. For some, that turkey holds a little bit more meaning, especially in Minnesota.
In 2018, Minnesota turkey farmers produced 42.5 million turkeys, leading the nation in turkey production. According to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, the top 5 counties in the state for producing turkeys are Kandiyohi, Stearns, Morrison, Lyon, and Ottertail.
Melrose, Minnesota, located in Stearns County, is home to Melrose Turkey Farms.
"18 percent of our annual production is consumed on Thanksgiving," said Jessica Westbrock, who manages the Melrose Feed Mill, which operates in conjunction with Melrose Turkey Farms. "30 percent of our production is consumed between Thanksgiving and Christmas."
Melrose Turkey Farms are spread throughout Stearns County and processes flocks of about 23,000 toms each week.
"We get turkeys from day one and raise them to be about 40 pounds for about an average of 20 weeks," Westbrock said.
Stearns County is responsilble for producing 45 to 50 million turkeys per year. For a lot of farmers, the 2019 weather pattern has been challenging, even for turkey production.
"The wetter the year is, the tougher it can be especially trying to keep the moisture out of the barns," said Shane Wilhelm, who manages Richmond Turkey Farms. "The disease potential is especially higher when it's wetter."
Poultry farmers aren't too far removed from the 2015 avian influenza outbreak that devastated at least 15 states and saw more than 43 million birds get destroyed as a result.
"We were hit pretty hard by that," Westbrock said. "We always had decent biosecurity, but we really stepped up our game as result of the 2015 outbreak. We haven't really seen anything as extreme since then."
Still, there are challenges this winter especially as colder weather moved into the state earlier and the demand for propane increased.
"We've had to do some split loads of propane to get us by," Wilhelm said. "It just takes a few extra calls, but no one's been cold so far."
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