Farm Of The Week: Farmer who talks turkey all year long

Back in 1843 when Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was first published turkey was an expensive festive luxury at the dinner table. It was the food of the gentry, whilst goose was the order of the day for much of the population.

That has all changed and in just a few days’ time the UK will consume over eight million turkeys in one day. It is a phenomenal success story and as each will serve on average at least six people it is estimated that nearly 50 million out of the 62.5 million on our islands will be tucking in on Christmas Day. Goose is still eaten but only by a relatively small number and somewhat ironically is now seen as the gentrified Christmas dish.

Charlie and Louise Woodall’s busiest time of the year is right now. They grow and finish 20,000 turkeys specifically for Christmas at Scat House Farm, near South Milford, by the side of what was once the A1 just half a mile north of the Selby Fork Hotel.

At the moment, their Meat Outlet is working flat out and the team at the farm is supplemented with an additional 20 agency workers. Their chillers are already full to the gunnels with turkeys due for delivery and Charlie believes that demand is still growing year on year.

“It’s all about producing the right product at the right price. Our turkeys are brought in at a day old when they start coming to us in July. We receive batches through the next eight weeks from July to September. What we try to do is to produce the variety of size that our customers are demanding. Generally those we bring in during July will end up being the largest. The most popular weight is 5 kilos with the smallest being 3.5 kilos and the largest around 20 kilos.

“We are primarily producing for our butcher and catering customers, but we also sell direct to the public. Our last turkey deliveries are made today (December 22) and we close our doors at mid-day on Christmas Eve. Up until then it is all go. Once we’ve finished we make straight for our local pub, The Chequers, and breathe again.”

Bronze turkeys, usually regarded as the black-feathered variety, have grown in popularity in recent years. It’s a trend that Charlie has followed and 1,750 of this year’s turkey flock at Scat House will be bronze.

“There isn’t a vast difference in taste although the bronze turkeys have a slightly gamier flavour and they are also a darker meat, but you can get white-feathered bronze turkeys too.”

In the past 50 years turkey has become more of an all-year product, partly down to Bernard Matthews and his turkey burger media campaign in the 70s and 80s, but also because the public has taken to eating turkey more regularly in everything from sandwiches to dinners. The other main reason has been the lowering of the price. Charlie points to this situation having been brought about largely by foreign imports. He’s merely stating facts.

“Turkey is now an all-year-round meal but we no longer produce it here other than in the run-up to Christmas. We processed and sold them every week up until five years ago but that market is no longer profitable in that way because of production moving further east in Europe to countries such as Italy, Hungary and Poland where turkey is produced far more cheaply. It’s gone the same way as intensive production of pigs.”

Prior to the development of the A1 what is now Charlie and Louise’s Meat Outlet was better known as Milford Farm Shop, a business that Charlie’s father, George, had built up since coming here in 1964 and where he established a poultry and pig-farming business on the 40-acre holding which is still tenanted from Ledston Estate. It was easily identifiable by a large butcher figure standing 12 ft tall by the roadside known to locals as ‘Electric Eric’ on account of his waving hand.

Eric has long since disappeared. Louise reckons his batteries must have run out. The more traditional farm shop that George ran for many years has also gone and the last of the Woodalls’ nearly 50-year involvement with keeping pigs will go shortly, leaving Christmas turkeys as the only livestock enterprise on the farm.

“We have had 150 sows with all progeny taken through to bacon for some years but we weren’t making any money out of them. They’re in the process of going and we will then concentrate all our efforts on the production of poultry and providing meat at the right price.

“Our business is primarily chicken, but we don’t keep any. We process them all year round and we buy as much English produce as we can, usually from around Norfolk. It is a highly price-oriented market and that means we have to buy imported meat. If we don’t then someone else will.

“Dad had one of the first farm shops in this area and it included all of those things people have come to expect from a farm shop. It was very busy and although money is not everything I would question just how much it made. Louise and I have gone for more of a belt and braces operation. Our Meat Outlet is a meat counter and that’s it. In today’s competitive climate you have to be very commercially minded. You won’t see animals running around outside here.

“What we are concerned with now is selling pork and poultry at wholesale prices, giving the public quality and taking out the middle man. It’s also about providing food that people can trust and knowing where it has come from.” So does the man who produces 20,000 turkeys a year like their meat himself?

“I eat it all the time and it is by far my favourite. Turkey, chicken and pork are all readily available for us here of course and I very seldom eat beef although I do also like lamb.”

Scat House Farm also grows cereals tended by Charlie’s cousin and arable specialist Chris Woodall who lives nearby. The cereals are fed to the turkeys.

Although Charlie’s farm was passed by 100,000 motorists daily when Electric Eric and the farm were alongside the A1 it was difficult to turn in to the farm on such a fast road. He and Louise both feel although they have lost the mass of traffic they have gained in other ways.

“People can now turn their vehicles into our driveway without fear of losing their lives. From an access point of view that has proved extremely beneficial and our house also no longer shakes from the constant rumble.”