AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Just curious as to what people think or know on turkey weights.

On a gardening sustainability forum someone has stated:



However a friend of mine has a male turkey that is well over 20kgs and yes he is purebreed but I can't think of his breed at the moment.

Turkey Sandwich, who is known on APF is also a very heavy bird so can turkey owners please let me know their weights etc of their purebreed guys as I am of the impression that mature male turkeys are a lot more than 20kgs?

Thanks

there are many different sides to this argument. my turkey weighs around 10 kg but that is all that I want him to be. if you are raising them for meat no-body wants turkeys as big as 20kg anymore, they just cant fit in the oven! 10-15 is a healthy weight.

On the exhibiting side, when I entered my turkey in the ekka I thought he had no chance against the other huge fat turkeys but when he recieved champion turkey I learned a very valuable lesson which was that it was that the size of a turkey does not substitute quality of the breed.

some quick trivia:the most meat to ever have been taken of a turkey was 32kg. (excluding bones and other organs)

ENJOY!

I was really trying not to answer this post as it was my post in another forum that was copied.
DH was watching some silly american show the other night "world's dirtiest jobs" or such like. They were saying that in the US only the hens are processed and sold as whole birds as the males are just too big to fit in ordinary oven. The males are processed in turkey breast, sausages and pastrami.

But back to turkey weights. I break turkeys up in several categories when talking to people about them
1. American wild turkeys from which all of our turkeys descended. They can obviously mate naturally and as they fly away from preditors I figiure they can't weigh too much.
2. Domestic turkeys - This is what I keep. They come in a range of colours and don't breed true. Adult toms would be lucky to make 15kg. Hens still fly exceptionally well especially when you are trying to catch them. They fit easily into my oven but ar not as meaty as commercial hybrid.
3. Hertitage turkey (Bronzewing, Bourbon Red etc) may grow to 20kg or more. Will breed true if you buy from a reputable breeder. Most can mate naturally but larger Toms may lose that ability or damage hens in trying.
4. Commercial Hybrid. Usually come in white for ease of plucking and processing. These can grow to enormous sizes but can't breed naturally due to size. I'm not sure if they breed true but probably not. I imagine that they are terminal product a bit like a meat chicken.

I love my turkeys. Can you tell?

Thanks for responding Maria.....I was hoping you would.

I can understand birds for eating only being allowed to get to a certain age, what with fitting in an oven, toughness of meat etc.

But they can and do get to those big weights if permitted which is the info that should have been given in your response on the sustainability forum. One has to remember that a lot of people on that forum are not poultry savvy and need as much info as possible as they are mainly breeding/raising for backyard consumability etc.

Birds at 15kg I imagine would breed naturally with little or no harm to the hen, however if a tom is permitted to grow to his full weight than natural mating would definately be an issue as his weight could or would kill a hen due to internal injury.

A case in point is a friend that bought a trio of Royal Palms up from Vic. The tom is HUGE, I know because I lifted him several times because I collected him from the drop off point. Weeks later when I was chatting to my friend (the birds owner) she told me he had tried mating the hens but in the process had caused severe internal injuries to both which had since died. Along with the reading I have done and conversations I have had I have come to realise that a lot of breeders are using artifical insemination as a precautionary measure (amongst other reasons). Yes the tramping all over a hen certainly wouldn't help either. Now she knows it is factual that it was internal injuries as she autopsies all her deaths because she likes to know why a bird has died and yep she has the experience after being a WIRES bird rescuer for over 2 decades.


Cheers

B&P I stand by comments that male turkeys on average are 10 to 20kg. I don't have my Storey's guide to poultry handy but most turkey's simply are not monsters. Your average turkey is never going to grow over 20kg no matter what you feed it. It would die of obesity related illnesses first.

This is taken from soozorps Royal Palm Standard (a sticky above)
Weight –
Male = 7.25 – 10.00kg [16 – 22lb]
Female = 3.60 – 5.45kg [8 – 12lb]

If you have seen a 30kg monster Royal Palm I suspect that either they are a line selectively bred to be huge (and therefore probably not show stock) or they have had some commercial hydrid genes in them. I am aware that some people cross commercial hydrids into their flocks to increase breast meat.

I find that a lot of potential turkey owner's don't buy turkeys because they are afraid that they will end up with a 30kg bird wandering around the yard. This is simply not true. It is that sad and contributes to a decline in turkey numbers.

As with any poultry purchase, it is buyer beware. Look at the parent stock and ask lots of questions before buying.

PS you can also buy "saddles" to put on breeding hens to reduce the scratching and injuries caused in mating. Doesn't save the hen if the tom is huge though.

And Mistwood I suspect that your turkeys do well at shows as they meet the standard for weight. The people who deliberately use comercial hybrids to beef up their stock or feed them excessively to get fat birds, end up with birds way over standard weights. They should not win any prizes with their turkey-zilla's.

just jumping in lightly here and only on the subject of weights [but long winded as always ]

I can only comment reasonably accurately on RPs and the meat birds I own

as MariaCreeksPoultry has already stated =

note that the RPs weights were given to me as the weight range allowed for exhibition birds and that any under or over weight run the risk of being weighed and disqualified = so these weights should be adhered to closely
Male = 7.25 – 10.00kg [16 – 22lb]
Female = 3.60 – 5.45kg [8 – 12lb]

* a 30kg monster RP would be disqualified as the judge would be intelligent enough to know the bird was not to standard

# made a phone call [ to someone that owns a copy of the APS ] = the weight for exhibition birds varies for colour the heaviest tom should weigh about 18kg [ Bronze ] with the White [Beltsville Small] being the lightest at 9kg
hens - heaviest again the Bronze at just under 12kg and the White Beltsville and RP at just under 5 1/2 kg

my meat birds =
I can say that both Turkey Sandwich who’s final average weight = 42kg - and his son Meat Sandwich now 39.2kg both mate naturally with good fertility [depending on the weather = heat and {oddly} intense cold effects fertility]
yes I have to be a voyeur to ensure they are not too rough - but seriously can anyone see me using A.I. with such large birds?
Meat Sandwich's son - a lanky legged teenager of already HUGE size is going to be right up there too - at 20 weeks he is already 18kg

How old is Turkey Sandwich? Is he likely to grow much bigger?

Turkey Sandwich will be 2 in July so pretty much full grown
Meat Sandwich is abt 3/4s grown
teenage lanky son/grandson 1/3 - 1/2 grown [ looks wise ] = he may end up being the heaviest

What weights are these turkeys after plucking? that is if your eating them?