News: Abbotsford (Scarce Turkey Supply - 1935)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

----Source: The Tribune-Phonograph (Abbotsford, WI) 10/24/2018

Originally published in the Abbotsford Tribune, Thursday, October 24, 1935

Holiday turkeys are scarce this season

Fewer turkeys will be available for the holiday market this year in both Wisconsin and the United States, as a whole compared with a year ago, but the tonnage marketed in the United States will not be greatly different from that of last year, according to the Crop Reporting Service of the Wisconsin and United States Department of Agriculture.

About 54 percent of the Wisconsin turkey crop will be ready for the Thanksgiving market, with 37 percent for the Christmas market. The balance of nine percent will be marketed after the holiday season. About 92 percent of this year’s crop will be young birds from the 1935 hatch.

For the fifth consecutive year, the output of turkey by commercial hatcheries in the United States has shown an increase over that of the preceding year.

For the United States as a whole, there was a sharp gain of 35 percent in the 1935 commercial production of turkey compared to with the 1934 hatch, but the mortality among turkey was much greater a year ago.

Weather conditions in the main were not as favorable for turkey raising as 1934, and diseases among young stock were generally more prevalent, this reducing the number of turkeys below last year’s numbers, this in spite of increased numbers of hatchlings.

Due to the feed situation last fall, turkeys were sold at relatively light weights.