Turkeys ‘very easy’ addition to home farm

BOISSEVAIN — The Thanksgiving turkey harvest has arrived for part-time farmers Brian Blanchard and Alicia Dyck at their variety farm south of Boissevain.

The couple this week processed their last load of turkeys and expect to sell 60 whole birds to customers ahead of the upcoming holiday. In an interview with the Sun, Blanchard said the turkeys are the newest addition to their home farm business that sells a variety of meat.

“People were asking for it,” Blanchard said, walking through the soft mud in front of the empty turkey enclosure. “We’re finding the turkey meat is very popular.”

Blanchard raised 100 turkeys this year from May through September, and recently brought the flock to a butcher in Niverville to get the birds packaged for the holiday.

“It is a significant time of the year in terms of meat sales for us,” Blanchard said. “The summer was slow, but as soon as the fall time came, we started talking about getting meat ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

Thanksgiving falls on Oct. 12 this year.

Blanchard and Dyck live on 18.5 acres south of Boissevain, along Highway 10, where they raise pigs, chickens and turkeys — with cattle calving in the spring. They steward the animals and have various meats processed for sale, then deliver the products around Westman, as far east as Winnipeg and north to Minnedosa, through their business Evergreen Alley Farms. They sell chicken, pork, eggs, beef and turkey.

The expansion of their turkey flock this year came through demand, they said. Customers are frequently asking for new types of meat, and they try to keep up, Dyck said.

“Lots of people ask us, ‘When are you gonna have lamb, when are you gonna have this and that,’” she said.

The couple doubled their flock from 50 last year. The birds are used for turkey breasts, ground turkey, drumsticks, half turkeys and full turkeys.

Blanchard is a licensed farm equipment mechanic. He works in the Boissevain area and is hoping to transition into farming full-time on the property during the next three years. The process has been busy, he said.

“It’s basically two or three full-time jobs,” said Blanchard, who told of getting up at 3 a.m. recently to drive a load of turkeys to a butcher in Niverville. “Just everything gets busier.”

While standing before his pig sty, Blanchard’s phone rang, leading him to advise the caller about repairs on a combine. Later, an unannounced visitor rolled up the driveway to purchase eggs.

Blanchard has been pursuing his goal to transition into a full-time farmer for about five years. The property south of Boissevain was purchased for this reason, and he has since grown the meat sales business to chase that dream.

He said he has wanted to get back to a farming lifestyle since he was a teenager and his grandfather sold the family farm.

“I grew up with my grandfather’s farm. I always loved the farm. There was no opportunity for me to take care of the farm,” he said. “I would have loved to continue it.”

Dyck is an osteopath and said she does not wish to transition out of that job.

As well as turkeys, the couple annually raises 1,000 chickens on the farm, roughly 15 calves and 12 pigs. Blanchard weaved through the property on Friday around a chicken coop, a turkey enclosure, two pigsties and a vegetable garden.

The real busy time of the year is when all the animals overlap, he said.

“Once you get into spring, it’s an absolute zoo here,” Blanchard said. A load of 500 chicks arrive each March and April, and the turkeys come to the farm in May.

He said he is researching ways to expand the turkey side of his business.

“We will go as high as we can,” he said. “The turkeys are very easy.”

The couple said they believe advertising and marketing — reaching an audience — is something to work on in the future.

“I think that’s our biggest hangup, where we don’t do good enough,” Blanchard said. “People these days, everyone from here, they want to know their farmer, they want to know their butcher.”

They said that’s the type of customer they tend to have.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com