Main CourseHow to choose your christmas turkey - battery or free range turkeys?
By understanding the difference in farming methods, the variation in price between factory and traditionally farmedҠturkeys soon becomes apparent. The legal guidelines for the welfare of factory farmedҠpoultry are incredibly poor. Turkeys have little space to move, with the weak often being tramped and suffocated by the bigger birds. With so little space, the farmer is often unable to collect the dead and ill birds from the floor, and so they are often left to decompose in the sheds. This, as well as the overcrowding, contributes to unbearable toxic fumes within the sheds. This is intensified by the fact that the sheds are enclosed and constantly lit, again to speed up production.
The process is made as quick as possible by the use of antibiotics and food additives for growth promotion, allowing a turkey to be reared in just 5 or 6 weeks. This has a hugely detrimental effect on the flavour and texture of the meat, as muscles and tissues are severely underdeveloped.
Traditional farm fresh turkeys, on the other hand, use slow growing breeds and no growth promoters to ensure the meat has a beautifully succulent texture and full flavour. This process normally takes up to six months.
Free range turkeys are given the freedom to roam in large grass meadows, giving them the ability to run and graze as they would in the wild. At night the turkeys return to the open poled sheds with fresh straw bedding to sleep upon. Unlike factory farmed produce, no artificial lighting is used, allowing the turkeys to have a more natural life.
When Christmas time arrives, the factory farmed turkeys can face a grim slaughtering process. If a fully automated system is used, it is possible that birds are not properly stunned before being plucked. Wet plucking is another cheap, automated method in which the bird is dipped in warm water to soften the skin so machines can then easily pull the feathers out. As well as damaging the skin, this also reduces the shelf life of the bird. Traditional methods use dry plucking, in which the bird is allowed to hang for over five days in order to develop its flavours. The farmer carries out each slaughter individually to ensure the highest and most humane welfare standards are achieved.
When all these factors are taken into consideration, it is obvious why buying a free range turkey is more expensive than battery farmed produce. However, the best way to achieve value for money is to cut out the middle man and buy your Christmas turkey direct from the farm. This can now even be done using home delivery services, allowing your Christmas to be stress free. If you want somewhere to start, check out Salix Farm"s free range turkeys