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?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
From looking at BoM’s temeprature maps on-line I can’t see “cooler”.
Try anomalies for 3, 6 and 12 months max & min.
Slighter warmer if anything.
Unless it’s a local effect ?
I think they’re up Devonport way.
More info needed ?
Bring Chrismas forward by a week? We could call it Christmas Saving. It would obviously catch on in the cities and it would give them another opportunity to heap scorn on regional Australia for keeping the traditional date.
Obviously these turkeys cant wiki/google/real climate, they would have known that rain hail or shine by the 25th they will be stuffed.
Anybody checked whether the turkeys have been fed GM corn? This seems a more plausible explanation for a sudden increase in size, rather than blaming the weather. After all we have had warm weather previously without getting overgrown turkeys.