The mysterious growing and shrinking Canadian turkey
No clear explanation for the 1950s bulge
Since the 1970s the weight of the average bird delivered to the Christmas table of Canadians has grown steadily thanks to modern breeding techniques, but the humble turkey's history holds deep mysteries in earlier decades.
Back in 1970, according to Statistics Canada figures, the average turkey weighed in at 5.6 kilograms. Current turkeys are coming in at 8.0 kilograms, more than 40 per cent bigger.
There is nothing mysterious about this growth. Selective breeding has developed turkeys that grow faster. The average size grew slowly through the 1970s, and then more rapidly since 1980, levelling off somewhat in recent years.
Statistics Canada data on turkeys goes back to 1941. Selective breeding is not a new science, and you would expect that growth trend to be fairly steady since then. And indeed, turkeys in 1941 weighed an average of just 5.4 kilograms.
But a funny thing happened after the war.
Following virtually zero change during the war years the average size of turkeys jumped to 6.2 kilograms in 1946, and climbed to 7.8 kilograms by 1954. The average size then crashed, dropping back to 5.5 kilograms in 1959.
What happened?
No one seems to know why this happened.
The Turkey Farmers of Canada says it can't comment on changes before 1980. Margaret Derry, the author of a number of books on animal breeding, has not looked at turkeys.
Grégoy Bédécarrats of the University of Guelph's Department of Animal Biosciences was able to provide a clue, noting it was after the war that breeding companies started to get organized and have comprehensive and scientific breeding programs.
Bédécarrats referred me to Peter Hunton, a retired poultry breeder and researcher, who provided further clues.
Consumer preference as a factor
Hunton described a product popular in the 1950s known as broiler turkey. These were young turkeys, slaughtered when they weighed four to six kilograms.
This is important to note, because the thing about average turkey size is it tells you virtually nothing about how big a full-grown turkey is. A full-grown turkey today would likely weigh 20 to 25 kilograms, said Hunton, as much as three times the average listed by Statistics Canada.
We don't, unfortunately, have anything conclusive here, but it seems likely that an important factor in the 1950s bulge has nothing to do with how big turkeys can grow. They are slaughtered when they reach the size the consumer wants them to be — typically at the age of 12 to 21 weeks.
Who has an oven big enough for a 20-kilogram turkey?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
