MONROE, Ohio – Consuming turkey on Thanksgiving is a decades-long tradition in the U.S. Data from the USDA shows that 40 million whole turkeys are sold for this single day. Of those, 97 percent are bought from the local grocery store, and 2.1 percent are purchased from large turkey farmers that raise 4,000 or more turkeys.

Then there are the small producers (0.9 percent) who raise turkeys on minimal acreage and fulfill a waiting list much smaller than their larger counterparts.

Large turkey farms can be found in Dayton and Cincinnati. Valley View Farm in Monroe is midway between these large cities. The farm is tiny, resting on just 100 acres, and is in a tiny pocket of northern Butler County. It’s very easy to drive past the farm not knowing turkeys or any other animals roam there. Here brothers Kevin and Kelvin Koch, third-generation turkey producers, are celebrating the family’s 85th year of offering turkeys in a free-range atmosphere. They intend to keep it that way.

“Our turkeys have never been caged and have free access to the outdoors and can do anything they want to do,” Kevin said. “We feed our turkeys a natural poultry feed that consists of corn and soybean meal that is balanced with essential vitamins and minerals with no added antibiotics, animal proteins or hormones.

“Kelvin and I have been involved with the birds from the time we were very little, and when our father died, we took over the business.”

At one time the farm was home to 5,000 turkeys for retail and wholesale to local grocers and restaurants. The Koch brothers trimmed that total to 1,300 in recent years, making the operation easier to handle as both have off-the-farm jobs. Orders are already in for all 1,300 birds.

“We’re a small operation with Thanksgiving orders only,” Kevin said. “We process here and sell them here. We’re a grower-producer, and all our work begins on June 1, the day the chicks arrive at the farm. We’re small but very successful thanks to online visibility. Our orders are 99 percent online now. Each October 1 we send emails to our customer base.”

Another small but relatively young organic turkey farm can be found in northeast Ohio at Bucks Pastured Poultry in Geneva. Turkeys made their first appearance at this small hobby farm by accident eight years ago.

“In 2015, our daughter started her first year in 4-H by showing turkeys at the Ashtabula County Fair,” Jim Buck said. “That was her first project and she captured Best of Show with that turkey. We never raised turkeys before and had to learn along the way. Since we had some success with raising turkeys, we started raising Cornish cross chickens for our family in 2017. It just grew from there. By 2000, our process grew and we had 800 meat broiler chickens in addition to all the turkeys. This year we’re raising 150 turkeys. We sell wholesale and on our website as well. Our birds are processed the Monday before Thanksgiving.”

Jim and his wife, Beth, believe in living the organic life for their birds.

“We open the door to their shelter and the birds get to come out into the sunshine and eat as much grass and bugs as they can find,” Jim said. “They’re also supplemented with free choice grain, so they can eat whenever they want. Our number one priority on our farm is to raise happy, healthy animals that give us healthy food for our family.”

At MACJ Farm (that’s Mindy, Andy, Carter and James Thomas), their turkey business began just last year on this certified organic farm. This tiny but thriving turkey farm in Roachdale in west central Indiana grew thanks to the rearing of other animals.

“We started small with just six laying hens,” Andy said. “We looked forward to having fresh eggs daily while teaching our boys where their food comes from. We then began venturing out to other animals. We now raise meat chickens, laying hens, hogs, steers, meat and dairy goats … all on pasture, the way animals were intended to be fed.

“We purchased this place 17 years ago and didn’t begin farming until eight years ago for ourselves, before expanding and selling to the public. Last year was our first year with turkeys. It went OK, as we got the birds a bit bigger than we wanted, but we sold everyone that we had. We’re going with the same number of turkeys this year so that we have a decent market. We sell online, too. Our turkeys are all pasture raised and free from antibiotics or growth hormones.

Just outside Georgetown, Ky., is Elmwood Stock Farm, a small, sixth-generation, USDA-certified organic farm owned by Cecil and Kay Bell.

“We’ve been in the bird business for about 17 years,” Cecil said. “We’ve been organic all these years. We began raising and selling organic chicken so going to turkeys was a natural progression. We started with Broad Breasted turkeys, then after two to three years we branched out to Heritage turkeys. As a result of all this, we started our own breeding flock to supply ourselves with eggs for hatching.”

Turkeys can be found on 12 acres of this 375-acre farm.

“We take advance orders now,” Cecil said. “We started out small but this year we’ll raise 500 to 600 turkeys. We’ll raise some for ground turkey so we can have that year round.”

Fun turkey facts

 • 46 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving

• The turkey industry employs 25,000 people in the U.S.

• The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed 86 pounds

• The average American eats 16 pounds of turkey a year

• Turkey is the No. 4 protein choice in America behind chicken, beef and pork

• Turkey has more protein than chicken or beef

• In 2022, 703.3 million pounds of turkey were exported

• The average weight of a Thanksgiving turkey is 15 pounds

• A male turkey is called a tom, a female called a hen

• The average turkey is 30 percent dark meat

• Turkeys can see movement nearly 100 yards away

• Turkeys have existed for 10 million years

• It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30-pound tom turkey

• Male turkeys gobble while hens make a clicking noise.

• Minnesota produces the most turkeys of any state

• Wild turkeys are in every state except Alaska

• June is National Turkey Lover’s Month

• In 2022, there were 210 million turkeys on 2,500 farms in the U.S.

• Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity

• The “Big Bird” costume on Sesame Street is made of turkey feathers

• The bright red fleshy growth under a turkey’s throat is called a wattle

• Turkey eggs hatch in 28 days