Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:28:04.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Commercialisation of British Turkey Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2009

JOHN MARTIN
JOHN MARTIN*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the 1930s turkey production in the United Kingdom has been transformed from a small scale, seasonal activity catering exclusively for the Christmas market, to an intensive mass production sector dominated by all year round producers, of which Bernard Matthews is the best known. This revolution in production methods reflects improved methods of disease control, enhanced nutritional understanding, and the development of more productive strains of turkeys with better conformation. These supply side changes have been accompanied by a succession of very successful marketing campaigns to persuade consumers of the merits of eating turkey throughout the year. This article investigates the reasons for the commercialisation of the turkey industry since the 1930s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , October 2009 , pp. 209 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report: a Short Study Final Report (London, February 2007), p. 3Google Scholar.

2. Murray, K. A. H.Agiculture (London, 1955)Google Scholar.

3. Holderness, B. A., British Agriculture since 1945 (Manchester, 1985)Google Scholar, Martin, J., The Development of Modern Agriculture: British Faming since 1931 (Basingstoke, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 40.

5. There were also a number of other breeds such as the Buff which had been imported from America.

6. Brade-Birks, S. Graham, Modern Farming, Volume 2 (London, 1950), p. 740Google Scholar.

7. Ashby, A. W. and Evans, I. L., The Agriculture of Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff, 1944), p. 43Google Scholar.

8. D. Hartley, Food in England (1954), p. 198.

9. In the United States the conformation standards of pure breeds of turkeys were under the jurisdiction of the American Standards of Perfection Club, whereas in Britain, breeders of turkeys such as the Buff had established their own Breed Club in the early 1900s. For a detailed account of the breed standards of British turkeys see V. Roberts, Poultry Standards (1997), p. 282–9.

10. Political and Economic Planning, Report on Agricultural Research in Great Britain (London, 1938), p.28Google Scholar.

11. W. B. Tegetmeier and Weir Harrison, The Poulty Book Comprising the Breeding and Management of Profitable and Ornamental Poultry (1873).

12. For a detailed account of the different breeds of turkey see Country Smallholding, August 2007.

13. Cullington, J.., ‘Norfolk Ducks’, Agriculture, 76: 10 (October 1969), 506Google Scholar.

14. See for example the advertisements in the poultry section of the Farmers Weekly and Farmer and Stockbreeder.

15. Intensive Turkey Rearing, Leaflet 20, N.I.P.H. (January 1932).

16. Shaw, R. B., and McMillan, A. M., Turkey Rearing on the Intensive System, Sutton Bonington Midland Agricultural College (1935)Google Scholar.

17. Report of the Poultry Technical Committee of Great Britain (1938), p. 32.

18. Poultry World (20th March 1936).

19. Motley, W. A., ‘Turkey Rearing’, Agriculture, 67: 9 (December 1960), 445Google Scholar.

20. Feltwell, R., Turkey Farming (London, 1953) p. 209Google Scholar.

21. R. J. Hammond, Food and Agriculture in Britain 1939–45 (1954), p. 59.

22. R. J. Hammond, Food, Volume 1, p. 721.

23. Feltwell, Turkey Farming, p. 281.

24. Ibid., p. 485.

25. Motley, ‘Turkey Rearing’, 445.

26. Ibid.

27. Murray, Agriculture, p. 373.

28. Personal interview with Lord K. A. H. Murray, author of Agriculture, 2nd December 1986.

29. Jennifer Davis, TheWartime Kitchen Garden: The Home Front 1939–45, p. 208.

30. Turkey Dinner, Dad's Army Seventh Series.

31. Martin, The Development of Modern Agriculture, pp.71–3.

32. Interview with turkey producer Mrs Mavis Martin, 21st November 2001.

33. Motley, ‘Turkey Rearing’, 445.

34. Ibid.

35. Feltwell, Turkey Farming, p. 209.

36. Ministry of Agriculture leaflet, Rearing Turkeys, 1956.

37. For a review of National Agricultural Advisory Service role see Martin, The Development of Modern Agriculture, pp. 91–2.

38. DR 73/334 Turkey Conference and Gobble Poster, Norfolk Records Office.

39. R. Feltwell, Intensive Methods of Poultry Management 9 (1953); R. Feltwell, Deep Litter for Egg Production (1958); Feltwell, Turkey Farming, pp. 75–78; Feltwell, R., ‘The Future of the Turkey Industry’, Agriculture, 68: 8 (November 1961), 421–5Google Scholar.

40. Motley, ‘Turkey Rearing’, pp. 445–8.

41. Feltwell, Turkey Farming, pp. 209–24.

42. W. D. Jones, Turkeys: Production and Marketing Problems (1966), p. 4.

43. The Times, 4th November 1971, p. 23.

44. Jones, J., ‘Turkeys from Small Beginning’, Agriculture, 67: 4 (1961), 627Google Scholar.

45. N. D. Jones, Turkey Production (1966), p. 7.

46. Bulletin No 27, Department of Agriculture British Columbia; Feltwell, Turkey Farming, p. 22.

47. Cooper, D. M. and Beer, A. E., ‘Turkeys: Is there a Breeding Problem?’, Agriculture, 71:1 (January 1964), 34Google Scholar.

48. Bradbury, John, ‘The Practical Value of Artificial Insemination to the Turkey Industry’, World's Poultry Science Journal 12 (1956), 142–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49. White Turkeys were known by a variety of names such as the British White, Austrian White and Holland White according to their country of origin.

50. The original Holland Whites had blue eyes whereas commercial crosses developed for hybrid vigour since the Second World War had brown eyes. The flesh of the true Holland White tends to be finer grained than on the commercial crosses. See Breed details issued by the Breed Club Secretary, Janice Houghton Wallace.

51. Beltsville Agricultural Research Centre is the most prominent agricultural science research centre in the United States.

52. Marsden, S. J., ‘The Beltsville Small White Turkey’, Poultry Science Journal, 23 (1967), 32–42Google Scholar.

53. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 20.

54. MAFF, Turkey Production, Breeding and Husbandry (1985), p. 3.

55. MAFF, Turkey Production, p. 3.

56. Coles, R., ‘Turkeys under Discussion’, Agriculture, 66:12 (March 1960), 569Google Scholar.

57. The Times, 2nd September 1972, p. 24.

58. Ibid.

59. The Times, 21st April 1973, p. 19.

60. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 16.

61. Aviagen www.aviagen.com accessed 14th February 2009

62. The Times, 11th February 1963, p. 7.

63. Ibid.

64. Shemtob, J., ‘Machine Plucking of Turkeys’, Agriculture, 64:5 (August 1957), 242–3Google Scholar.

65. Godley, A., The Chicken, The Factory and The Supermarket: The Emergence of The Modern Broiler Industry in Britain, Working Paper Series, University of Reading (2007), p. 21Google Scholar.

66. Ibid., p. 21.

67. Tock, R., ‘Turkey Meat the Year Round’, Agriculture, 63:8 (November 1956), 380Google Scholar.

68. W. D. Jones, Turkeys: Production and Marketing Problems (1966), p. 12.

69. The Times, 2nd September 1972, p. 25.

70. This was particularly evident in terms of W. A. Motley (Sherborne) Ltd., which went into liquidation on 21st June 1973, see Estates Gazette, June 1973.

71. MAFF, Turkey Production, Breeding and Husbandry (1984), p. 73.

72. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 3.

73. The Times, 22nd September 1976, p. 30.

74. The Times, 20th September 1978, p. 21.

75. The Times, 28th March 1981, p. 20.

76. The Times, 25th July 1981, p. 3.

77. www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com accessed 12th February 2009

78. The Times, 27th September 1984, p. 14.

79. Daily Telegraph, 6th February 2007, p. 10.

80. www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com accessed 12th February 2009

81. Farmers Weekly, 23rd March 2007, p. 15.

82. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 33.

83. Ibid., p. 11.

84. The Times, 25th July 1981, p. 3.

85. DEFRA, The UK Turkey and Geese Production Report, p. 32.

86. www.meatinfo.co.uk the online Meats Trade Journal Turkey Genetics published 16th December 2005.

87. www.Kelly-bronze.com accessed 10th February 2009.

88. British Poultry Council see www.poultry.uk.com accessed 11th February 2009.

89. Turkey Club see www.turkeyclub.org.uk accessed 12th February 2009.