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Turkey producer speaks to recovering industry

A southeast Iowa turkey producer says the industry is recovering from a volatile 2024.

“We’re definitely in a better position than we were 12 months ago,” said Tim Meyer.

Meyer tells Brownfield producers have been on edge due to the outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza over the last few years.

“It’s been a struggle as far as getting poults to market and turkeys to market,” he said. “We’ve had some things that we had to work through.”

But he says the outlook is favorable.

“They’ve gotten a vaccine now and they’ve gotten it through the hatcheries,” he said. “We’re getting good quality poults again. The turkey numbers are coming back.”

Meyer says he hasn’t had any detections of HPAI on his operation. He raises nearly 60,000 turkeys annually in Henry County.