Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 12, Number 4, DeMotte, Jasper County, 4 December 1941 — BETTER FEEDING REDUCES TURKEY BREEDING COSTS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BETTER FEEDING REDUCES TURKEY BREEDING COSTS

That the efficiency of turkey breeder production can be unproved tremendously is shown by the results at the Purina Experimental Farm at Gray Summit, Missouri. According to G. P. Plaisance, manager of the T.irkey Department, the turkey breeder fleck at the Purina Experimental Farm products around 60 eggs per hen during the months of March, April, and May, whereas according to available data, the country’s average for these same three months, which are the principal months when the average turkeys do their laying, la 45 to 50 eggs. "The significance of these comparative figures is revealed when one considers that last year approximately more than 32,000,000 turkeys were marketed from about 40,000,000 hatched,” Plaisance says. On the basis of the average turkey hen producing 40 to 45 eggs per year during the laying season instead of 60 eggs, it would require approximately 400.000 more hens. In terms of feed this w’ould mean that it would require at least 20,000 more tons of feed—approximately 1000 carloads. Feeding, management, sanitation, and breeding are responsible for the increased egg production attained at the Purina Experimental Farm from the turkey breeder flock, Plaisance asserts. "Our original breeding flock was selected some years ago from a flock of poults hatched from eggs purchased at random the previous spring. We had no advance information concerning their ability to lay. Proper feeding and management brought out their inherited ability to produce lots of eggs.” Editor’s Note: The turkey breedei ration fed to the breeder flock at the Purina Experimental Farm is handled locally by our distributor of checkerboard feeds.

Purina Experimental Farm turkey hen No. 520 laid 219 eggs in a 292day period.