This is the VOA SpecialEnglish AGRICULTURE REPORT.
Americans will observe Thanksgiving on Thursday. Many peoplecelebrate the holiday with a large dinner that includes turkey.Eating turkey is an American tradition. Early explorers to NorthAmerica found the woods full of wild turkeys. The first settlersraised and ate the birds.
Today, Americans eat more than two-thousand-million kilograms ofturkey each year. That is about eight kilograms of turkey for everyperson. This year, about two-hundred-sixty-million turkeys will beraised in the United States. Almost all of the birds are raised onfarms, then killed and sold in food stores.
The National Turkey Federation represents the American turkeyindustry. The group says turkeys sold in stores are products ofartificial insemination. Scientists collect reproductive fluid frommale turkeys and put it in the females, or hens.
Normally, a hen produces eighty to one-hundred eggs during aperiod of twenty-five weeks. At the end of this period, the henusually is killed. However, some farmers let the hen rest for threemonths before the start of another reproductive period. The henproduces seventy-five to eighty eggs during the second period. Babybirds burst from the eggs twenty-eight days after the eggs are laid.
Farmers feed turkeys corn and soybean meal. They also give thebirds vitamins and minerals for good health. Modern productionmethods have shortened the time needed to raise a turkey. It usuallytakes fourteen weeks to raise a hen to a weight of seven kilograms.A male turkey needs eighteen weeks to reach a weight of sixteenkilograms.
The National Turkey Federation says genetic studies, better feedand other processes have improved the quality of turkeys raised onfarms. Turkeys are raised in environmentally-controlled barns. Thesebuildings protect the birds from other animals, disease and badweather. Turkeys walk freely inside the barns. They are not raisedin boxes.
The National Turkey Federation says turkeys are not given drugsor hormones. It notes, however, that American officials haveapproved the use of antibiotic drugs to prevent disease. It saysfarmers must wait for a period of time after feeding the birdsantibiotics before the birds can be killed and processed for food.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.