Bird flew! Free range turkeys thin on the ground in Galway

Shoppers found themselves caught up in a last minute panic this week in search of the most prized buy this Christmas – not a toy for once but a turkey!

Huge demand this year saw, for example, the biggest free range turkey farm in the West, The Friendly Farmer in Athenry, sell out their 1,200 stock long before Christmas Eve.

But a delighted Ronán Byrne of The Friendly Farmer said the supply and demand anomaly was no harm as it would only boost sales for next year!

Mr Byrne increased his turkey numbers this year. He started rearing 1,200 turkeys in June and by the end of summer he had started marketing to customers. In fact most supermarkets have their fresh turkey orders in by the end of the summer.

Of course there are still frozen turkeys in some shops and but it’s unlikely that any outlet will have a fresh turkey left so late in the day because of their limited shelf life.

“We had 750 turkeys last year and this year increased that to about 1200. We started taking orders months ago as we needed to know if people wanted them whole or crowned and where they wanted them delivered to,” said Mr Byrne as he delivered the last of his fresh turkeys at various markets around the county in the last few days. This year he even had collection points in Dublin.

Of course there are other turkey farms in Ireland – but none on the scale of the Friendly Farmer in the West of Ireland.

“Some customers were caught short,” he said, “as they hadn’t ordered them in time and then the supermarkets hadn’t ordered as they don’t want to be left with turkeys on Christmas Eve.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune – in the shops on Christmas Eve.