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The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan
November 21, 1978
FOWL PLAY
A meat inspector, Kathryn Tanner, examines each turkey for possible contamination and disease as they are being cleaned. Tanner has been a state meat inspector for eight years.
"They say the only one dumber than a turkey is the one who raises them."
Francis Wilson
Francis Wilson, 56, leads a barnyard full of turkeys to the slaughterhouse where they will be dressed for the holiday season. About 600 turkeys will be butchered before Thanksgiving Dav.
TOPEKA—The muffled roll of the tractor engine was soon accompanied by a continual num of gobbles. And by the time the tractor had pulled into the feeding yard with a load of grain, turkeys were in full chorus. The white breasted birds were eager to feast.
However, for 100 of the 1,200 turkeys at the Francis Wilson turkey farm, this no喂 feeding program is still effective.
Wilson, the 56-year-old owner of the farm, two miles south of Topeka, said he would dress, or make ready for market, all his turkeys for the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
"We'll kill 100 today and finish the rest off by Christmas time," Wilson said. "Some of the turkeys will be smoked and some put into baskets and they will eventually bring in more than $2,500."
The turkey farm has been operating since 1931. It is part of the 360 rolling掌树 that Wilson, and Thomas, own.
"We're one of the last small turkey farms," he then said. "There are lots of little turkey farms in the country."
WILSON SAID the turkeys had been feeding the past six months to reach proper weight for breeding.
"We believe that the turkeys ought to be financed out like he said. The more maturate they are, the cuckoo that comes."
One of the turkeys, a tom weighing 40 pounds, oblided his way down a steep hill toward metal
Indeed, after six months of feeding on milo and other grains, the turkeys were plump.
When such a turkey reaches maturity, he is prepared for sale at the farm's three-room dressing room.
it is here that the turkies take shape to fit nicely on a platter.
"We just grab the old head and cut the throat," Wilson said as he held one hand in the air and slid his fingers up the neck.
After leaving the kill chutes, the turkeys are scaled in 140 degree water, followed by a 15 second stint on a drum with 480 rubber fingers that pick out the feathers.
The floor was red from the blood and the water and littered with feathers.
Once the turkeys are dressed down to a goosebump skin, the pin feathers are picked with a needle.
Wilson took each leg, sliced once, snapped on bone and sliced again to form the drums.
Charles Wilson, Francis' son, completed the next step.
"YOU DON'T want to cut the skin too much 'cause you'll lose some of the juice when you cook it," Shirley Corbett, one of the five ninfethair pluckers, said.
"We cut just below the knuckles;' course you want to leave the skin over them," he said.
"The internals," said Vera Wilson, still dressing at age 47, "the intestines, livers, gizzards, and stomach."
"This here is the feed line and the crawl," said William Morris, as his 80 age-old hands with precision slung the long neck of the turkey, pulling an six-inch tube with a pouch.
"The crab is just like a balloon; the feed goes in and fills the crab and then goes into the stomach." Morris said. "With all these crab eggs, you can be upward of balloons if they could blow them up."
Next, the turkey's craw is removed.
Two people draw, is the removal of the wrist's injuries. Knives, hands, and faucets are loosely placed.
After the heart and other organs are removed.
STORY BY Philip Garcia
"We have trouble with skunks when the turkeys are smaller and with coyotes," Wilson said. "We also have two-legged problems. We need to keep the field to take care of anybody coming in."
"We had to scald the turkeys by hand by dipping them up and down in cans. Water was carried by hand to cook and to wash them. It was as much time now to dress a skirt as it did then."
Wilson said the most important factors in raising turkeys are to keep them fat and not lose any weight.
**mason** said wide-eyed and matter-of-factly.
When we started, you just put the turkey in the microwave.
the turkeys are weighed and then set in ice water to cool.
"All I look for are diseases and bruises and places that need to be cut off, said Katherine Tanner, a nurse inspector who was dressed in artificial skin. She'd had to wear really good birds. I haven't found it."
Wilson said the neck was the tastiest part of a turkey.
AN INSPECTOR from the State Board of Agri-
cheduled checked the turkeys as they were
"The neck is the best part," he said. "That's good eating. Closer to the bone, the sweater to
Wilson said that for the most part, his turkeys were dumb, but “when you start killing them they find a new boss to find out where they stand in the peck order.
"They say the only dumber than a turkey is the one who raises them."
one who woke up. "As if they understood the joke, the turkeys let loose with a round of gobble."
After the turkeys are cleaned and plucked, they are dropped into tubs filled with ice water for storage.
Photos by Alan Zlotky