Archives for December 19, 2005

According to today’s NEWSMAIL@YOUR.ABC.NET.AU:

Tasmania’s main turkey producer is warning customers to expect more than they have ordered, after climatic conditions resulted in bigger-than-usual birds.

Nichols Poultry owner Robert Nichols says the company thought it courteous to let its customers know “we’ve overshot the mark a little bit this year”.

He says a cool growing season has seen the turkeys gobbling down their food like there is no tomorrow.

“We just found that it’s been such an exceptional season that they’ve just eaten that much better this year and performed that much better that it’s quite a surprise,” Mr Nichols said.

“Just so unusual. So difficult to predict as well.”

Mr Nichols says customers who have ordered smaller birds will be most affected.

“Christmas market dictates that we have to have a whole heap of birds from small birds and around about the two to three kilos, right the way up to large birds for catering trade of 11 and 12 kilos dressed weight,” he said.

“But this year we’ve really struggled with some of the smaller sizes, the two and three kilo birds have just shot out of their skins and they’re just so much better performing than they’ve been in the past.”

Mr Nichols says because the birds have to be supplied fresh, they cannot be killed when they reach the right size.

“I was hoping that maybe we could all look towards bringing forward Christmas Day to the 19th,” he said.

“I think that would work quite nicely for us, but I think if that won’t take off we’ll have to go a few sizes larger on our birds.”

But Mr Nichols says the big birds do not make him feel like a bit of a goose.

“We’re playing with Mother Nature … we don’t have any artificial control over the climate that we put our birds through so as with any farming venture you’re in the lap of the gods,” he said.

So it has been the warmest year on record (click here for the BOM media release) – except in Tasmania?