OCR Text |
Show Profits To Be Made In Turkeys Says U. S. A. C. Poultryman By Carl Frischknecht U. S. A. C. Extension Poultryman If the old adage, "one extreme follows another," is true, 1933 ought to be a fairly good year for those who continue to raise turkeys. tur-keys. No one, of course, is prepared to state just what the price will be for turkeys this fall, but there are a few factors that appear to be favorable at this time. First of all production this year in the United States will likely be considerably less than it was last year, when it is believed the largest lar-gest crop on record, amounting to about 19,000,000 birds, was produced. pro-duced. The extremely low prices received for turkeys in 1932 were indeed discouraging to many and the demand for baby poults this spring, especially in the larger commercial turkey producing areas appears to be considerably below what it was a year ago at this time. Likewise, lack of money and credit with which to purchase and brood poults this spring are other factors that will likely reduce the number of turkeys that are raised In 1933. While it is true that the cold storage holdings of turkeys are at present considerably above those of a year ago, it is also true that more people than ever before are eating turkey throughout the entire en-tire year. It Is therefore possible that the present supply in cold storage will be entirely exhausted by the time the new crop is read to market. The r.vmber cf turkeys be'ng imported by the United States from the Argentine and elsewhere is also on the decrease. During the elf- en-month period from January Jan-uary to November 1932, only 471,-000 471,-000 pounds of turkey were imported im-ported by this country as compared with a total of 5,044,000 pounds in 1931. Another item that must not fee overlooked Is the fact that turkeys today are being raised more economically econ-omically than ever before, and the producer does not need to get as much for his product to realize the same amount of profit that he did formerly. Losses in brooding have been materially reduced by the Improved Improv-ed methods that have been adopted, adopt-ed, and better care and management manage-ment in general throughout the entire growing and developing period per-iod have made it possible to produce pro-duce and market a better grade of turkeys than ever before. Feod costs as well, are the lowest they have been for a number of years. ind although the present Is likely like-ly not the time to encourage much expansion of the turkey industry, It is believed that those who have plenty of range, who already have the necessary equipment, and who have had the experience in raising turkeys can well afford to brood poults again this year. Since good poults can be purchased pur-chased this year for 30 cents each, " and with good feeding it requires only about five pounds of feed to produce a pound of live turkey, it irl is evident that one can still mar ket his feed to advantage through turkeys even when the birds sell for as low as 12 cents a pound, providing, of course, that equlp- . ment for brooding and rearing is already available on the farm and ,- disease losses are reduced to a minimum. Additional information on raising rais-ing turkeyi and copies of a turkey improvemnt program for the state may be obtained without cost by - t writing to the Extension Service of the Utah State Agricultural college col-lege at Logan. |