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About The news-review. (Roseburg, Or.) 1948-1994 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1951)
10 Th Newt-RtvUw, Roseburg, Ore.Wed.. Nov. 21. W Local Turkeys Destined For Many Of Country's Thanksgiving Tables i i i , -i-rwiw ; - v." , ft .A, EFOJtE That priia foms at the Routledge farm ara ready for market. They look ai kingly in h. field as thev will reianina over a Thanksgiving dinner. (Staff Photo) 7 gillie, , yVoS mil w " w AriEH inn prue crop or torn Turxeys n reaay ror marker, ine oirat are snipped to points al over the United States, Hawaii and Alaska. !C'V:, m .-i .A 1 , ENROUTE After killing, the turkeys are scalded and picked by a machine, but a score of women at the Northwest Poultry and Dairy Products Co. must pick the feathers which the machine has missed. (Staff Photo) Douglas County Realizes One Million Dollars Yearly From Large-Breasted Bird By GEORGE CASTILLO Douglas county has parlayed a tradition into a million-dollar busi ness. The tradition is Thanksgiving and its basic accoutrement the turkey. An approximated 750.000 festive boards all over the United States this year will creak under the weight of turkeys hatched, bred and killed In Douglas county.' It s here that the most sought after gobbler, the broad breast, roams the grasslands in numbers that even Douglas county residents are unaware. Ed Davis, manager of Northwest Poultry and Dairy Products Co. estimates a turkey population in the county of 125,000. Record Crop Grown With Thanksgiving just one day off, birds are being killed and shipped out from this major turkey killing plant of Oregon at a clip of 30,000 pounds per day. The kill ing season started this vear on July 31 to siphon off a record crop of birds. Killing and shipping has continued steadily since that date. The turkey market has increased with the rate of killing, and it appears the holiday rate of con' sumption will be the greatest ever recorded. Turkey wholesale sales in 1951 will draw about $650,000 to the grower in Douglas county. Add another $350,000 for labor and ov erhead costs and it mounts to an easy million dollar yearly rate. As 4a case in point, let s ex amine the Northwest Poultry and Dairy Products Co. In Roseburg, which, incidentally, is the only government supervised and regis tered plant in Oregon. Birds ready for market come off an assembly line at a rate of about 300 an hour, preceding the peak holiday market. The management pys out an average of live dollars per lumey "on tne nooi." Davis said it was a common oc currence to write a check for $30,' 'YOU CAN fy MORt... mutyov can't HuyaentAl' fV 'ri run mt o awowc . I D X rfC-'J 7HM. IfJOVSTRYt iMIN&M TO I VA V ? ri 'YtS.SMORl MAKlOi . U THAN HOST VXUl- . . Mwis'vt CK' POKDOMATIC DIIVI IS TWO DRIVIJ IN ONII iri THI NIWIST, SMOOTHIST, OOINOEST AUTOMATIC DSIVI OF All! Fluid Tvtua Cnvwff roiiooMAnc nai both Jj Automatic Mechanical Oor rWrfomtk Drft, FNeMf nhm nil, wffabl wfA V-t cV. tqvpmnl, MaiwiM 4 km wfaiKt to dwgi wiihowt iHn. Be ter yet ... WITH FORDOMATIC DRIVE X Fordomitic Drive does more things for you, more smoothly than any other automatic drive. Fordomitic is two drives in one, combining the best features of earlier automatics. You get the smooth flow of power of a Fluid Torque Converter ... the GO of Automatic Mechanical Gears . . ; film the savings of having the txmct power you need, wheo you need ill Sea ew selectlea e( -iJ" ? J Come in and '715T DJWVf" it today! L0CKV00D MOTORS, Inc. Rose and Oak St. Phone 3-4486 000 on an order of turkeys from the producer. This creates a need for employees to kill, clean and pack the birds. Northwest employs from 10, in the slack season, to 40, before the holidays, to do this processing. Then, there's machin ery, lights, power and a multitude of other costs before the freight and. railway companies begin the job of shipping the birds all over the country. Processing St.ps Nettd The processing of a turkey should be particularly interesting to house wives who spend many a weary hour picking and cleaning a tur key for the holiday feast. From the time the turkey is killed until it is hanging on the rack ready for packing, it takes slightly over 10 minutes. Within that 10 min utes, a continuous assembly line carries the turkey through a scald ing vat, several picking machines and through a line of 20 women who clean the pinfeathers. But this assembly line rate is still apparently too slow to meet the rate of delivery and the rate of orders. Although killing started earlier this year than ever before, the plant is booked up until Dec. 21 with live turkey deliveries. The reflected great demand for the Douglas county product stems from a widespread desire for the heavily - meated. broad - breasted variety of bird which Oregon has I lea tne nation in developing. Ore gon, and this county particularly, has yearly improved the turkey in size and breadth of breast to a point no other state of the union 1 has approachd. This is primarily i due to ideal climatic conditions for turkey breeding. Some hens have run as heavy ' as 20 pounds and some toms have reached a record weight of 40 pounds. It is not unusual to see a bird with a breast measuring six inches across. This means a n abundance of white meat. Aside from the weather, prob hlv the most imDortant factor in that development is the annual Northwestern turkey snow ai nose burg. Although threatnd by out side interests, the show will be staged here again this year Dec. 3, 4, S, t and 7. It's 'here that breeders compete for quality with emphasis on the broad-breasted turkey. One of the foremost Individual developers of this broad-breasted variety is George Routledge, whose hatchery is located about nine miles west of Roseburg. At peak season approximately 20,000 tur keys roam his farm. Year after year, he has improved the blood lines of the birds by trap nesting, which is a means of identifying eggs and subsequently the turkeys. His estimates of the value of the turkey industry in Douglas county far surpasses the million dollar estimate made by Davis. Calling it "really big business," he points out its relationship with other busi nesses in a cycle from the egg to the platter which includes equip ment, feed, labor, processing, over head, packing and shipping. He re ports that the turkey industry in the United States is estimated at one quarer of a billion dollars. He points out that Douglas county and southern Oregon are particu larly fitted for turkey raising be cause of the rolling hills, stump and other necessarily unusable land. "Land which supports one cow or a couple of sheep will range several hundred turkeys.' Routledge says. "Thus the income is better per acre than in any other industry." He continues, that as an added benefit, the birds can range on farm land since they not only fertilize the land, but also kill the weeds. In concludion, Routledge said LINOLEUM FLOOR TILE 1720 Walnut Ph. 3-7367 c the Industry has been a- boon to Douglas county because it em ploys many people and benefits almost every business. 7 SCHEDULES DAILY TO LOS ANGELES FROM ROSEBURG What service! What convenience! Seven schedules doily, including two time-saving expresses. Choice of scenic routes! To Pdily' One-Woy Schedules Fares Los Angeles 7 $12.10 San Francisco 5 8.00 Sacramento 6 7.50 Medford 1 1 2.65 Plus Federal Tax RETURN TRIP 20 LESS . . . an Round-Trip Tick.lt. A. J. MURRAY 344 S. Stephana Phan. 3-3341 GREYHOUND DOUGLAS COUNTY'S LARGEST TURKEY Soes Into The ven Friday See this Turkey Being Roasted in the Biggest Little Electric Range in the World. The... Mo otinetr household range has an oven so big ! See the largest Turkey grown in Douglas County being roasted in the largest oven available in a home tiie range. See the Turkey being cooked in the oven of a "Thrifty Thirty" Frigidaire Range Friday. Turkey and refreshments will be served alt day Saturday. Come in to sample this turkey and see this new revolutionary "Thrifty Thirty" range Saturday. , omValkii 1 IAVUU1IIL7, ROSEBURG 120 West Oak, Dial 3-5574 Every Saturday it Open House in our store, Coffee and refreshment! will be served by our home econo mist. See the "Wonder SUTHERLIN Central & Stote, Ph. 2988 Oven" in use.
