‘Free-range’ turkey farms still a rarity

American agricultural producers will produce some 250 million turkeys this year, the vast majority of which will wind up on dinner tables Thursday, according to U.S. government statistics.

Only a tiny percentage of those birds will have been raised under what could be called “free range” conditions. But that number includes every one raised at Wisdom Natural Poultry in Haxtun, on the eastern plains of Colorado.

Turkeys raised at Wisdom Natural Poultry in Haxtun, Colo. are given about four acres in which to roam. Courtesy photo.

“We only raise a couple thousand a year. That’s more than 20, but a heck of a lot less than the hundreds of thousands raised” in large-scale agricultural operations, says Jay Wisdom, whose family raises free-range chickens, turkeys and eggs.

Wisdom says there are no real standards for an “all natural” label or “free range” – “It’s kind of an open-ended deal.” In Wisdom’s case, that means birds are kept in a fenced, 4-acre grassy area where they can wander and feed at will, with a “shed” where they can feed on grain. it also means the birds are never given hormones, antibiotics or preservatives.

“The way we phrase it is, you have to know your producer, to trust your producer, if you want to know that your turkey is truly natural,” Wisdom says. At the Wisdom farm, “There’s lots of green in the summertime. (Turkeys) can feed inside the shed and go in if it rains, but they can go out and eat green if they want. … They do eat grass, and when they are out wandering around you can watch them chase bugs and grasshoppers.”

Wisdom Natural Poultry – which supplies Rocky Plains Quality Meats in Dacono, has a weekly booth at the Boulder Farmer’s Market, supplies several local restaurants (including Terroir on Main Street) and last summer tested the waters at the fast-growing Longmont Farmer’s Market – is a fourth-generation family farm that has raised free-range, natural chickens and eggs for 10 years and turkeys for 5 years.

Wisdom says his family wants to raise healthy meat for consumers, but also says, “You’ve got to treat your animals well.”

“Locally raised food is better for you. You know the people who raised it, it’s not a big commercial operation. There are a lot of advantages,” he says.

Phil Haynes, co-owner of Rocky Plains Quality Meats in Dacono (which also offers free-range buffalo, lamb, pork and other meat) agrees.

“It’s about a six-letter word: Health. That’s the bottom line,” Haynes says. He says everything from obesity to a propensity for common colds can be attributed to commercially raised farm products. He points out that the “white,” commercially raised turkeys in grocery stores this time of year are that way because they are dipped in a chlorine solution. “Naturally raised birds have yellowish, or brownish skins, not white.”

Among the disadvantages, at least for many consumers, is price. Wisdom free-range turkeys, for example, sell for $3 a pound or more, whereas commercially raised birds typically go for $1.75 or $2 a pound, Haynes says.

“But the meat isn’t as good,” he says. “We have been on a health kick for 18 years, since we started (selling naturally raised meat). In that 18 years, the amount of sickness we have had has gone down 90 percent. We don’t have colds any more. We don’t get the flu. We don’t have weight issues. We just don’t eat any processed foods at all.”

Haynes says the difference between commercially raised turkeys and a free-range, Wisdom turkey are apparent as soon as you put them in the oven: The free-range birds take considerably less time to cook, he says. He says the first one he cooked was ready an hour and a half before his Thanksgiving guests were due to arrive.

“Now I tell people they should use a temperature probe” to guide cooking time, he says.

Wisdom describes his farm as “on the big end” of smaller producers. The farm is unusual, in that it has its own U.S. Department of Agriculture “processing” facility, which means the birds are raised and slaughtered on the farm and are never trucked anywhere.

“That is our shining star. We have control of the entire process. We don’t have much impact on the climate and we don’t use much petroleum,” he says.

Wisdom turkeys (and chicken and eggs) are mostly distributed along the Front Range, with a booming business in Boulder County. Wisdom says the farm’s tests at the Longmont Farmer’s Market went well this summer, and while he can’t say when, that’s the most natural place for expansion.

“We just don’t have the manpower yet, but (Longmont) probably will be our next market,” he says.