North Carolina raises the second-most turkeys in the country, following Minnesota. More than five percent of the state’s agricultural revenue comes from turkeys and almost 25 percent comes from broilers — poultry, mostly turkeys and chickens, raised specifically for meat production.
The mild climate in North Carolina is a key reason the turkey industry is so important. The turkeys’ shelters must be kept at a certain temperature, and because the state’s temperatures are never too extreme, it’s more economical to keep the temperatures stabilized here than elsewhere, said Herb Vanderberry, director of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, agricultural statistics division.
There has been a 6 percent decrease in turkey production in the last year because the cost of corn, and therefore feed, has gone up tremendously. The high production cost has prompted producers to cut back, Vanderberry said.
Minnesota trumps North Carolina largely because its production costs are a lot lower and it can afford to produce at higher numbers, said Jesse Grimes, a professor in the N.C. State University Department of Poultry Sciences.
The primary reason for the difference in production costs is that it costs a lot less to ship grain from the Midwest to Minnesota than to North Carolina, Grimes said. Another is temperature — while North Carolina has several months of ideal weather, Minnesota has even more. Turkey growth slows considerably during the hottest N.C. months, and temperatures in Minnesota rarely get that high.
