That turkey this Thanksgiving will be pricier than in years past
Increases in feed, chicks, fuel and just about every other cost to raise turkeys has led to a spike in the price of that bird that will go on the table this Thanksgiving.
There is also a shortage of supply, so customers are advised to order ahead of time if they’re getting a fresh bird or to buy now if they’re getting that bird frozen.
Stacy Frost, manager of Monahan's Meat Market in Adrian, placed her order for fresh turkeys months ago.
“We had to place our order for turkeys probably three months ago just to ensure that we would get them. I still cannot receive them until hopefully the 18th or after, but we had to put ourselves on the books,” Frost said. “I have actually been advertising for about three months now on turkeys just to make sure that people are doing preorders this year. You have to preorder to guarantee that you’re going to get one.”
There has been talk about avian flu but that seemed to hit several months ago and has passed, although Frost still has difficulty finding turkey deli meat.
“Months ago, we did have a shortage on chickens and all of that but that doesn’t seem to affect us now. Months ago, we couldn’t get our hands on things,” Frost said.
Pat McAuliffe, owner of McAuliffe's Meats in Addison, said he is not even ordering fresh birds this year because of the difficulty in finding birds. He has ordered about 100 cases of turkeys. Two to four turkeys come per case depending on the size of the bird.
He said he has found 14- to 20-pound turkeys but anything bigger than that is hard to come by.
“We can’t guarantee the supply, so we’re not even doing fresh turkeys this year. We’ve got a few frozen out there. We’re not big. We can’t compete with Meijer or Kroger or Walmart, somebody that’s going to come out with a cheap turkey at low cost. So we don’t push real hard for the turkey business because we can’t compete,” McAuliffe said. “We’re paying right around $2 a pound or $2.29 a pound. It’s probably a $1 a pound increase over last year.”
Lucas Dickerson of Adrian-based farm Webbed Foot Pines LLC raises chickens, eggs, beef, lamb, pork, ducks, geese and turkeys, although turkeys are typically low margin, he said. Nevertheless, they are a big draw.
This is the first time in 14 years that he has raised fewer birds than the year before. Typically, he increases his turkey count by 12% to 20% each year. Last year he had 240 turkeys, and this year he has 200.
There is a lot of preplanning that goes into raising a turkey for Thanksgiving, Dickerson said. He makes his slaughter appointment in January and orders the turkeys in February or March. It is not cost effective to hatch them, so he purchases them as day-old chicks. He receives the chicks in June, July or August, depending on how big he wants them to be for Thanksgiving.
“All of the costs have gone up astronomically this year. The slaughter price has gone up a solid 25%, the chick price has gone up 15 to 20%, feed goes up every time we get a new batch of feed. We’re probably up a solid 30 to 40% up in feed costs,” Dickerson said, not to mention the cost of fuel.
Dickerson has 150 home deliveries and several licensed farmers markets in Washtenaw County where he sells his meat and eggs. He travels 400 to 700 miles a week over a five-county region, and how much the turkey sells for depends on where they're sold. Even his butcher is 50 miles away.
“With the cost being up, it’s a lot of money for a turkey,” Dickerson said. “Turkeys aren’t inexpensive anymore.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: That turkey this Thanksgiving will be pricier than in years past
