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Iowa turkey producer reflects on industry uncertainties

A southeast Iowa turkey producer says 2024 has been a year of challenges.

Tim Meyer raises nearly 60,000 turkeys annually in Henry County. “That market is slowly climbing out a little bit. I’m much more positive about the turkey market than I was six months ago. Everything but beef really went through a tough swing here this spring.”

He tells Brownfield the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza has been another concern. “There really isn’t a lot of government subsidy for that when that happens. That’s basically on the farmer. It’s a devastating deal, and it’s something you pray you don’t get because there’s really not a lot of recourse to it.”

When it comes to positive detections of the disease in his county, Meyer says, “Knock on wood, no, we haven’t had anything in our area,” he said. “Probably the closest was in Ellsworth up north of Des Moines. That was several years ago.”

He says heightened biosecurity continues to be his biggest priority.