Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and for some North Carolina farmers, being in the turkey business makes this a busy time of year. But not all turkey operations are the same. For example, Wild Turkey Farms of China Grove started out as a child’s project for the N.C. State Fair.

Rowan County Farm Bureau member Lee Menius helped his son raise a handful of turkeys several years ago with the intention of bringing one of the free-range birds to Raleigh to compete. After the best turkey went against others for the blue ribbon, Menius sold the remainder to local friends in hopes of at least recouping feed costs.

Word of mouth and a handful of years later, there is now a waiting list for birds from Wild Turkey Farms. Menius raises about 50 to 60 turkeys per year, which are directly marketed to customers to purchase just before Thanksgiving. The poults are brooded for a couple of weeks after hatching; then they are sent outside to feast on a mix of locally raised feed as well as clovers, insects and other natural materials.

“People have told us they can’t believe the difference between ours and a Butterball Turkey from Food Lion,” Menius says. “These turkeys have a lot more flavor.”
Menius adds that raising the free-range turkeys is a nice complement to the chickens and pigs that he grows for commercial operations on a family farm that dates back to 1885.
“With a name like Wild Turkey Farms, we have people calling often about our birds,” Menius says. “There’s a great demand out there.”

For Northampton County Farm Bureau member Donny Lassiter with Lassiter Farms, he’s working literally for wild turkeys. Lassiter works the family’s farm of more than 7,000 acres raising cotton, wheat, soybeans, peanuts and corn, but also oversees a small slice of the operation to raise chufa, a unique crop that’s sold as food for wild turkeys.
Chufa is a bunch grass with a peanut-like underground nut that’s used to feed wild turkey, deer and waterfowl on wildlife refuges and commercial hunting plantations. “It’s great for the birds because it’s really high in protein,” Lassiter says.

Lassiter explains that harvesting chufa is mostly difficult because of the extensive thrashing, cleaning, drying and packaging process necessary to get the crop to market. The farm first modified peanut harvesting equipment to collect the chufa, but it has since made significant investments into special tools and storage facilities for the crop.

Lassiter has steadily raised more chufa to meet demand from buyers throughout the Southeast. What started as a one-acre plot now is a chufa operation of 60 acres with the goal of planting 100 acres. Along the way, Lassiter has learned how chufa is a delicacy crop in Spain because the nut can be milled down into grist to be used in gluten-free products.
While chufa might not be in a local grocery store soon, Lassiter is looking for more wildlife operations to buy the crop he produces.

“We’ve had a lot of growing pains with the chufa business, trying to get it going,” Lassiter says. “I’ve got high hopes we can keep it growing.”