What are some differences between how commercial turkeys and heritage turkeys are raised?
After years of engineering, the Broadbreasted breed has morphed into a bird that cannot run, fly or mate. They are artificially inseminated, because their huge chests keep them too far away to mate. The meat of the Broadbreasted White is often dry because they are fed pelleted feed, nothing natural, and they are harvested young, bred to be ready for slaughter when they are 4 and 5 months, when the meat just isn’t developed yet. When the life of the bird is short, it never matures and puts on the layer of fat, which is why dry commercial birds have to be injected with liquid. By contrast, heritage turkeys roam free, can fly, are fed naturally, and not harvested until 7 or 8 months, or even later.
