Poultry Your Way - Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems ...

FARM PROFILE • Industrial: Confinement
Production system
The production system at Trestle Town involves starting 17,000 day-old turkey poults every eight weeks. They stay
in one of two 40 ft by 216 ft brooder barns for five weeks before moving into one of four 55 ft by 476 ft grower
barns, where they gain about 0.3 pounds per day, reaching a 40-pound live weight at 19 to 20 weeks of age. They
will dress about 88 percent and produce a large breast commanding a premium price, some intermediate value
products, and ground turkey, the residual product.
“Turkeys are highly sensitive to their environment,” Joel said. Success for the producer depends upon how well he
is able to monitor the environment, interpret what he sees, and respond quickly. Poults need heat, even more than
chicks. Bussis heats the area within two 10-ft diameter cardboard rings with 12 radiant heaters, each suspended
seven feet above the floor below. Each ring holds 720 baby turkeys. Temperature at the top of the softwood
shaving litter is kept at 105 degrees at day one, and can be dropped one degree per day as they grow older.
Thermometers—and bird behavior—are used as monitors. “Their behavior tells you whether they’re comfortable,”
Joel said. “They pant if they’re too warm and huddle if they’re too cold.” Radiant heat heats what it touches, not
the whole environment, so room temperature is about 88 degrees—still pretty warm. When the turkeys leave the
brooder barns, they need 75 to 78 degree temperatures. By 16 weeks, they need temperatures of 50 to 55 degrees,
and cooling becomes more important than heating, except in winter.
The grower barns are naturally ventilated in summer but power-heated and ventilated in winter. Curtains 5.5 ft tall
cover the top sides of the 10-ft tall building sidewalls and can be rolled up or down depending upon temperatures
inside and out.
Mortality is a fact of life with poultry, Bussis said. What has to be prevented is catastrophic loss. The farm has
“stand-by generators in case of electrical failure. “When I was young and we were producing eggs, we lost 40,000
pullets in cages in a power failure,” Joel said. In heated, ventilated brooder barns, heat and ventilation systems have
to work.
Feeding system, waterers, heaters, fans for ventilation and
side curtains in a grow-out building.
Sudden loud noises—such as sonic booms—can cause
problems. Turkeys, when frightened, will rush away and pile
up, with massive death loss possible from suffocation. But,
Joel said, that’s rare. “Turkeys are inquisitive and gregarious.
They want to be around anything different. When you enter
the barn, they gradually crowd around you—while chickens
will run in the opposite direction.”
“Coccidiosis is the more common disease that can hurt you,”
Joel said. Coccidiostats are added to the first four brooder
rations. (The birds are fed nine different rations of various
protein and energy levels over the 19 weeks of their lives.)
Vaccination is used to prevent hemorrhagic enteritis, one of
several poultry diseases that can take the joy and profit out of
raising turkeys. “There are a lot of potentially deadly diseases
and deficiencies,” Joel said. Access to his poultry buildings is
strictly controlled to prevent spread of contagious diseases.
Even with good management, a 10 percent death loss is
“decent,” 8 percent “really good, excellent” and 11.5 percent
“OK,” he said. Luckily, losses are greatest at the start, when
poults may not adjust to feed during the first five days, a time
of “starve-out.” Turkeys are notorious for heart problems and
leg problems, which gradually take a toll on the birds, even
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MANAGEMENT
ALTERNATIVES