C4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 29,1980
wmestead
mies
(Continued from Page C 2)
The Zimmermans use propane gas as then mei source,
and he says, “We use a lot of energy ”
The birds are housed m about 15 buildings, with the
newest buildings insulated as they are built. Three people
work in the operation, and some part-time help is hired in
the summer and at loading time.
All Zimmerman’s turkeys are processed into Swift’s
Butterbali turkeys at the processing plant at Birdsboro,
near Reading, the original plant operated by Zimmerman
and four other producers
Zimmerman began m the poultry industry with laying
hens and added about 500 turkeys one year for the fresh
market. He said, “I was fascinated by turkeys so we
slowly changed over to them They are relatively easy to
take care of if the conditions are right Things can be
difficult if they’re unhappy or if their health isn’t good ”
He pointed out that turkeys are not susceptible to
disease as some poultry, but added, ‘We keep people out
of the pens ”
His affection for the big white birds comes out when he
says that occasionally people want to purcahse a Jive
turkey just to have around a farm He says, "Turkeys are
rather noisy if they are tame They are not afraid of
people. They hang around buildings and act as a wat
chdog ”
Zimmerman has been active in supporting this industry
and is presently serving as chairman of the Pennsylvania
Turkey Council which is part of the Poultry Federation
He is a member of the former Neppco, and has served on
its Board of Directors In 1978 he was named Turkey In
dustryman of the Year for his achievements and con
tributions.
Zimmerman is optimistic about the future of the poultry
industry, saying, “There is quite a future in the poultry
industry, especially if the price of gram goes up With
some promotion I think the turkey industry has a good
future ”
This year experts had predicted a rather grim year for
growers, and, although it started out poorly, Zimmerman
said it hasn’t turned out all that bad In the south chickens
and turkeys were lost m the heat and in some egg
producing operations fertility dropped off. Locally,
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Leroy Zimmerman checks the feed m an
automatic feeder in his finishing house at East Earl.
Zimmerman grows out 135,000 birds annually to
provide a year-round market of frozen birds
though, Zimmerman says they only lost a few birds and
the weight gam was not quite up to normal
Pennsylvania ranks eleventh in turkey raising, with
5,300,000 birds grown annually Zimmerman points out
that Minnesota and California are large turkey-producing
states with North Carolina recently becoming another
important state in the industry He said both the climate
and the lower cost per land helped the turkey industry
grow rapidly in North Carolina, where he buys his poults
Zimmerman notes, ‘ We are a deficit area. There’s a lot of
turkeys coming into Pennsylvania ’ ’
Zimmerman farms about 83 acres and grows some
gram, but not nearly enough for his entire operation
Along with other producers, Zimmerman is happy to
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