Just the Facts Mame

Just the Facts Mame. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. That means in most cases a house full of people, parades and football on the TV, perhaps a game of touch football in the yard and of course more food than we can possibly eat. The centerpiece is almost always that scrumptious turkey but before then I thought it might be nice to pay a little homage to that bird we will be consuming tomorrow with some interesting facts.
•    Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, proposed the turkey as the official United States bird.
•    In 2000, the average American ate 17.75 pounds of turkey.
•    The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.
•    A 15 pound turkey usually has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.
•    The male turkey is called a tom.
•    The female turkey is called a hen.
•    The turkey was domesticated in Mexico and brought to Europe in the 16th century.
•    Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour.
•    Wild turkeys can run 20 miles per hour.
•    Turkeys’ heads change colors when they become excited.
•    Most of the turkeys raised for commercial production are White Hollands.
•    It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30 pound tom turkey.
•    A domesticated male turkey can reach a weight of 30 pounds within 18 weeks after hatching.
•    Forty-five million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving.
•    Twenty-two million turkeys are eaten each Christmas.
•    Nineteen million turkeys are eaten each Easter.
•    Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clicking noise.
•    Turkeys have heart attacks. The United States Air Force was doing test runs and breaking the sound barrier. Nearby turkeys dropped dead with heart attacks.
•    The five most popular ways to serve leftover turkey is as a sandwich, stew or soup, salad, casserole and stir-fry.
So there you have it. Turkey, it’s not just for Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.