CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Customers are seeing increased prices for farm-raised turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving.
An Alice farmer said that the Thanksgiving favorite was due for a price increase since last year, all to keep up with costs and labor involved in raising turkeys.
Edelen Farms in Alice is selling turkeys for $6.50 per pound for the frozen weight this year. That is up from the last four years when they were sold for one dollar less per pound.
These turkeys average between 15-26 pounds, Edelen Farms' highest average weight yet.
"It's the first batch of turkeys that went through it, and we just produced a lot healthier, better bird, and so I think our average was about four to five pounds heavier - each bird this year," Edelen Farms Owner Andrew Edelen said.
Edelen, a second-generation owner of Edelen Farms, said that a house was built for their birds last year. There are chickens in the house now, and they do not live there with turkeys simultaneously. This year, the first batch of turkeys was raised in it, totaling 65 turkeys. They got them at one day old and raised them for 18 weeks.
Edelen attributed the price increase this year to the time and effort spent raising turkeys. He said that they eat about 60-65 pounds of feed in their lifecycle. The feed supplements the grass that turkeys eat as the house is moved around twice a day.
"They were eating all that grass every single day, every 12 hours they were out, and so we just kept fresh grass in front of them," Edelen said.
All the turkeys at Edelen Farms were processed about two or three weeks ago. They are now frozen and ready to be sold. Edelen said that they are sold at farmers markets in Corpus Christi. They are also sold online as early as August.
He explained that many customers bring kids to his farm to see turkeys while they are being raised.
"We do have a lot of customers that come to the farm and pick-up, whether that's from Kingsville, from Mathis, from the Alice area. We get some from the Corpus area that just want to come see the farm," Edelen said.
For comparison, Edelen said that he knows farmers in Seguin selling turkeys for $7.50 a pound. They raise heritage and traditional turkey breeds there. At his farm in Alice, their price is for a traditional breed.
