Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ROAMING PESTICIDE
My father, who grew up in the 1920s in the deserts of central Idaho, told me it was
his preteen summer job to herd the pest-eating turkeys around from field to field dur-
ing the day and bring them home to the barn to roost at night. I always thought using
turkeys as a method of controlling grasshoppers was unique to that part of the world.
After moving to Iowa, imagine my surprise to learn that a fellow teacher had had the
childhood job of herding his family's turkeys from field to field all summer in the
1950s in western Iowa!
When you place commercial varieties of birds outside, or rear them in a backyard
or barnyard situation, they are more susceptible than heritage turkeys to diseases, pests,
and weather extremes. You must be careful to make sure that you have a plan to protect
these birds from environmental shifts as they become older. They require cooling sys-
tems in summer and they will not handle cold as well as heritage birds, so should be put
either in a well-protected place for winter or butchered by the time winter arrives.
Modern commercial turkeys are poor foragers. They prefer to sit by the feeder and
eat and rapidly put on weight. They are not able to fly much at all and in most cases nev-
er have use for a roost, as they are unable to get off the ground. Their incredibly large
breasts render them basically incapable of breeding. Man has created a huge monster of
a meat breed that is chiefly dependent upon humans to live. They are virtually incapable
of feeding themselves in a pasture-based system. They have a weakened immune sys-
tem because of their rapid growth and high nutrient requirements, making continuous
feeding of antibiotics necessary in many cases.
A High-Maintenance Breed
Modern turkeys don't adapt as easily to weather changes as do heritage birds. Like
their wild counterparts, teenage heritage birds love to roost in trees, even in a snowfall.
Modern turkeys frequently succumb to a number of ailments if they are exposed to long
periods of wet and cold. They also have a much more difficult time dealing with high
temperatures, mostly because of their extra weight and an inability to cool themselves
with a dust bath or fly into a tree for shade.
The modern turkey simply is not designed to be a sustainable commodity. Along with
reproduction, it depends upon man to supply a balanced food supply. Heritage birds
supplement their diet with added protein from insects and worms, extra vitamins from
greens, and so on, but modern birds are not able to move fast enough to catch many in-
sects, even if they had the desire to do so.
