MSU club raises money by raising turkeys

EAST LANSING - Some student groups hold bake sales. Others host 5 Ks. Michigan State University’s Avian Science Club raises money by raising turkeys.

The club’s 15 members will raise, process and distribute 138 turkeys this year for Thanksgiving as they have done every year since before any of the current members arrived on campus, said Kyle Baker, club president, at a meeting earlier this month

Club members say the birds live in luxury during their time at MSU, with food available almost constantly and low lighting. Some members, including Baker, draw vocal and often-times overwhelming reactions from the birds when they enter their housing. A few whistles are enough to wrest the clucks and gobbles from the bulbous birds, he said.

The birds were sold this year for $2.75 per pound. More than half were sold three weeks before table settings could be drawn from household storage.

There’s definitely a pecking-order when it comes to turkeys, said Sara Cloft, chair of the group’s turkey sale committee.

“Hens are definitely more aggressive than the toms,” she said. Often times, in pens packed with both genders, the males will suffer more abuse than the females, she added.

This year's birds were purchased from Eagle's Nest Hatchery in Ohio, said Amanda Hanes, the group's social chair. All the steps of the process are done by the students themselves or in partnership with the university’s meat lab.

Money raised through the turkey sale goes toward bringing as many group members as possible to the annual International Production and Processing Expo in Atlanta. The event draws upwards of 30,000 people, from students to vendors from some of the largest poultry-raising operations in the country, said Richard Balander, an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science.

Balander has served as the club’s advisor for more than three decades, and said little has changed over the years. He began pushing the group to attend the January conference soon after taking on the advising role, saying it’s an opportunity for students to get face-to-face with future employers.

Not all group members are interested in working with birds in their careers. Hanes said she joined the group out of an interest in learning more about breeding quail and other birds at home.

“I don't have an interest in being a part of the poultry industry in a large scale sort of a sense, but I would potentially be interested in being a hobby breeder for different types of poultry at some point,” she said.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.

MSU turkeys

To learn more about MSU-raised turkeys or to check on last-minute availability, visit the MSU Avian Science Club’s Facebook page.