A3O-Uncaster Farming, Saturday, November 30, 1996
Turkey Farmers Prepare Store For Holiday Season
(Continued from Page A 1)
the farm raised as many as 3,500
birds for wholesale and retail
markets. But most of the birds now
are raised for the dressed, retail
market many of which are sold
at the .farm store, Strock’s Farm
Fresh Meats.
Kent said the business dates
Kent Strock farms with wife
Raelene and Kent’s parents
Clyde and Mabel. Here,
Raelene helps load up turk
eys for customers.
The birds sold at retail end up as employer gifts at the
holiday table. For Thanksgiving, Strock estimates that of
the 1,000 birds the store will sell, 300 will be gift turkeys,
hens weighing between 16*18 pounds. Toms will weigh
about 23-28 pounds. Mostly family members are involved In
the dressing process, which occurs at certain times before
the start of the holidays. The turkeys are processed and
wrapped in cream-colored plastic shrinkwrap packaging
and placed in boxes with the Strock Farm logo.
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back to the mid-19305, when his
grandmother, Rhoda, began the
business with her husband George.
The business began as a school
FFA project that blossomed into a
profitable enteiprise.
Back then, “farmers did every
thing,” said Mabel. “You had
everything poultens, pigs,
cows, a little of each.”
Kent affectionately remembers
Grandma Rhoda. "My father can
tell you stories about Grandma
helping to clean poultens in the
farm house,” he said. “She loved
raising turkeys. She did almost all
the turkey work. She was quite a
woman.”
The business remains healthy
because of the relationship the
Strocks have maintained with cus
tomers, 90 percent of which live
within a five-mile radius, accord
ing to Strock. Customers from
Dillsburg, Camp Hill, Mechanics
burg, Lemoyne, and other areas
purchase hand-selected turkeys by
weight.
The early season birds are pur
chased as 24-hour-old poults in
June. Thanksgiving birds are pur
chased in July and Christmas birds
in August.
Most of the Nicholas White
turkey poults are purchased from
Cuddy Farms out of Danville,
Ohio. In most cases, according to
Strode, the poults are picked up in
quantities of 100 per box at 3:30
a.m.-4 a.m. from a truck off a near
by turnpike exit.
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Strock loads the boxes into the
back of a pickup or his van.
The poults have been debeaked,
detoed, and sexed. Most of the
orders are for hens (about 80 per
cent of the total) with the rest toms.
The challenges remaining for the Strock family are to develop and maintain custom
er loyalty. The business remains healthy because of the relationship the Strocks have
maintained with customers, 90 percent of which live within a five-mile radius. Here
Strock gives directions to a customer.
Early this week, Kent Strock was busily spreading lime to mark parking spaces in
gravel near the store.
Stall
For the Christmas stock, Strock
selects about 900 hens and 100
toms. Customers want a smaller
bird for carving, according to
Strock the reason they place
hens for growout.
The early flocks are split 50/50
on the ratio of hens to toms.
When they arrive at the farm,
the poults are placed in a well-lit,
naturally ventilated house built in
(Turn to Page A3l)