Christmas in August? Heritage Turkey Field Day

Mike Walters holds a heritage turkey

— Mary Penick

With the temperatures rising during the dog days of summer, most people are not thinking about the Thanksgiving feast and Christmas holidays.

Mike Walters is.

Much like the retail industry, Walters Hatchery relies upon the holiday season to provide most of the year’s profit from his farm.

Walters raises “heritage” turkeys, chickens, quail and pheasant on his ranch outside Stilwell, Oklahoma.
He is nationally known for his turkeys. These old fashioned breeds are once again in demand.

On Thursday, August 18 from 6-9 pm, the Kerr Center and Walters will hold a field day to provide information about his heritage turkey-breeding program and sales.

The event is sponsored in partnership with the USDA’s Risk Management Agency.

According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a non-profit organization that strives to retain genetics and information about breeds of domestic production animals, the turkey is the one of the most genetically eroded of all livestock species.

Commercial birds are limited to a very few strains of large white turkeys that have been selected for large confined production systems.

Walters Hatchery takes a different approach. Walters’s goal is to diversify and maintain the turkey gene pool for future generations.

He currently raises nine varieties of turkey: White Holland, Bronze, Bourbon Red, Royal Palm, Narragansett, Blue Slate, Eastern Wild, Black and Buff. All of these birds are listed on the ALBC list of threatened varieties.

Walters says he relies upon good breeding practices to develop naturally hardy turkeys that have no need of growth hormones, stimulants, or chemical medications to survive.

The birds are raised free range, with access to open air and pasture throughout the day. He grows the turkeys for 6-8 months until they reach full maturity.

The slow grow-out time allows the birds to develop a layer of fat, thereby allowing the meat to be moist and more flavorful.

An additional benefit to Walters’s free range system is that the birds are not heavily concentrated in one area like that of large turkey farms, so that there is little to no build up of manure and no run-off of nitrates and other pollutants into nearby water systems.

Walters received a producer grant from the Kerr Center in 2001 to help with the preservation of his turkeys.

The field day will cover all aspects of raising, processing and genetic recovery of the birds Walters raises. He will also discuss the issues of processing and marketing poultry within the state.

The event is free, but pre-registration is required. Participants are limited to 30, so register early. For more information and to register, call the Kerr Center at 918-647-9123 or email jcastillo@kerrcenter.com.

For more information about the preservation of turkeys and other breeds of livestock, go to www.albc-usa.org or go directly to Walters’s website, www.historicalturkeys.com.