Talking turkey means 'heritage' for conservancy

SILER CITY -- No ordinary turkey will be on Teresa Fischer's dinner table this afternoon.

She'll be serving two birds she raised on her Chatham County farm, both black Spanish turkeys, a "heritage" breed.

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a Pittsboro organization, has been working quietly with farmers such as Fischer for 30 years to preserve the genetic diversity of the nation's farm animals, including turkeys.

On her family's 15-acre farm near the Silk Hope community, Fischer raises a flock of about 18 turkeys. They're mostly bourbon reds, a breed developed in the late 1800s in Kentucky. It sports a rich red-brown plumage and white tail and wing-feathers.

A conservancy member, Fischer has been raising turkeys about seven years, she said Wednesday, as her border collie Hope helped bring the flock into the barn for the night.

Fischer also raises Australorp chickens, Shetland sheep and a few milking goats. A llama keeps the herd safe from coyotes.

"I don't think it's a good thing that we get down to just a few breeds in the world," Fischer said. "You always have the possibility of a disease or something happening to the breeds that are so highly bred that they lose some of the genetic traits that are good for, say, immune resistance."

Better disease resistance is one advantage of a heritage turkey breed over the white commercial variety, known as the broad-breasted white, said Marjorie Bender, research and technical program director for the conservancy.

In a recent ALBC research project on immune response, "the heritage turkeys far outperformed the commercial turkeys, the industrial turkeys," Bender said. "That's why they do better outdoors."

"When you over-breed something and it has a very limited gene pool, when some threat occurs, whether it's a disease or an environmental threat, it can wipe a whole population out," said Emily Lancaster, a Chatham County farmer who this year raised four turkey breeds from poults, or young turkeys.

Although preserving genetic diversity is a good idea, that sort of catastrophic scenario is unlikely, said Sam Pardue, head of the poultry science department at N.C. State University. Studies show there is still a lot of genetic diversity in commercial poultry populations, he said.

"Modern strains under our conditions grow much faster with less feed and less waste than the old breeds my great-grandmother used to grow," Pardue said. Still, he added, it's a good idea to husband resources. "We can't predict the future."

As part of its mission, the conservancy helps identify livestock populations from which sperm and ova are preserved frozen. It used to have its own gene bank but recently turned its samples over to the federal government.

Other animals

The conservancy, which has eight paid staff members, also works closely with farmers, taking censuses of breeds. Like a wildlife conservation organization, it has such categories as "threatened" and "critical."

Breeds on the group's critical list have such names as Florida cracker horse, red wattle hog and cotton patch goose.

"The habitat for many of these endangered breeds are outdoor, free-range production systems," Bender said. "Many of those habitats are being lost. They're not well-suited to being in indoor production settings."

But the conservancy does not oppose killing animals. On the contrary, Bender said. "You have to eat them to save them."

Bender says these breeds were created to fill specific roles: feeding and clothing humans, and providing labor. "What they got in this bargain is liberal access to food and protection from predators," she said. "What we got in exchange is food for ourselves and clothing for ourselves."

At this time of year, the turkeys' role as food is particularly evident.

Fischer says her bourbon reds have a much stronger flavor than store-bought turkeys. "The Butterballs, to me, now, there's just no texture to them. They're kind of like white bread compared to wheat bread," she said.

And the heritage turkeys are becoming popular.

"Every year we get more and more calls," said grower Gena Ram, a former conservancy member who lives near Cary. It's a good idea to start looking for a heritage Thanksgiving turkey in the summer or even earlier, farmers advise.

A heritage turkey typically sells for $4.50 to $6 a pound, Bender said. The national average price for turkey is $1.10 a pound, the American Farm Bureau Federation says. Heritage turkeys need to live outside, and they take longer to reach market weight. That's part of the reason they're so much more expensive.

But, fans say, it's worth it.

"There needs to be more of them," Ram said. "They taste wonderful."