Turkey Feed Cost Calculator

Turkey feed basics

Turkeys eat significantly more than chickens per bird, and the gap is not small. A finishing Broad-Breasted White tom puts away about a pound and a quarter of feed a day, which is roughly what five laying hens eat combined.

The other thing that surprises new keepers: you cannot just reach for the chicken feed. Turkeys need turkey-specific feed with higher protein than chicken feed, especially when young. Poults require a 28% protein starter, not chicken starter, because the protein levels are different and a protein-deficient poult does not thrive.

For a sense of scale, Penn State Extension’s figures — quoted by ATTRA — put a Broad-Breasted White tom at about 100 lb of feed over 20 weeks and a hen at about 64 lb. That is the single most useful pair of numbers on this page, and the gap between them is the reason a mixed-sex flock is hard to budget from one figure.

A note on where these figures come from. We built this because the existing online estimates for turkey feed cost are vague and usually borrowed from chicken figures that do not transfer. The calculator now works stage by stage across the weeks a bird actually spends in each, and the broad-breasted figures are calibrated so a full grow-out lands on Penn State’s published totals — 96.6 lb for a tom against their 100, 61.9 lb for a hen against their 64. The Sources section sets out which rows rest on that published data and which are our scaling. If you weigh your own feed and your numbers differ, the contact page is at the top of the site.

Toms and hens are not the same bird

Most turkey feed advice online, including earlier versions of this page, quotes one number for “a turkey.” That hides the largest single variable in the whole calculation. A Broad-Breasted White tom and hen differ by roughly 50 percent in finished weight, and their feed totals differ by about the same margin.

Weights and feed totals are Penn State Extension’s, as quoted by ATTRA. Both sexes land inside the 2 to 2.8 lb of feed per lb of body weight that turkeys are generally credited with, which is a useful check: if a feed total and a market weight you have been quoted fall outside that band, one of the two numbers is describing a different bird. Penn State’s current edition reports higher 20-week weights again — 44.3 lb for toms and 32.3 lb for hens — reflecting continued genetic selection, which would imply better conversion than the figures above.

Heritage birds are smaller and slower. Around 20 weeks a heritage tom is near 23 lb and a hen near 14 lb, and they need roughly 28 weeks, sometimes 30, to reach a marketable weight at all.

Why the old “75 to 80 pounds” figure was wrong

This page used to quote a single lifetime total of 75 to 80 lb of feed per bird, and tracking down where that number came from explained most of what else was wrong here. It is simply the average of the tom and hen figures: 100 and 64 average to 82. Set the calculator to a mixed flock and it still produces 79.3 lb, which is the same average arrived at honestly.

The problem is that no actual turkey eats 80 lb. A tom eats a quarter more than that and a hen eats a fifth less, so the average describes a bird that does not exist — and if you buy feed for four toms using it, you finish the season about 70 lb short. Worse, the old page paired that averaged feed total with a hen’s 24 lb finished weight, giving 3.1 lb of feed per pound of body weight and appearing to break the 2 to 2.8 conversion range the same page quoted. With the sexes kept apart, that conversion range turns out to be exactly right. An average is a fine thing to publish as long as it is labelled as one; the failure was letting it stand unlabelled next to weights from one sex.

Feed stages

• Poults 0-8 weeks: 28% protein turkey starter (non-medicated).
• Growing birds 8-16 weeks: 20-24% protein turkey grower.
• Adults and finishing birds: 16-18% protein maintenance or all-flock feed. ATTRA and Penn State both put the floor at 16 percent from 16 weeks to processing.
• Never use medicated chick starter for turkey poults — the coccidiostat dosage differs and can harm them.

Game bird feed is the usual substitute. Dedicated turkey starter is not stocked everywhere, and game bird starter at 28 to 30 percent protein sits in the right range for poults; game bird grower covers the 8 to 16 week stage. Check the label says non-medicated. What does not substitute is chicken layer feed — too little protein, and calcium levels set for laying hens rather than growing birds.

Buy feed in quantities you will use within a month. University of Maine Extension warns that “feeds that are stored longer than one month increase the risk of toxic molds in the feed.” That is worth weighing against the per-bag saving on a bulk order, particularly for a small flock working through a 50 lb bag slowly. Store it sealed, dry, and off the floor.

Foraging: which birds actually do it

The foraging setting in the calculator applies the same reduction to every breed, and that is a simplification worth being honest about. Heritage and Midget White turkeys are genuinely active foragers — ATTRA calls turkeys “excellent and aggressive foragers” that will work through insects, seeds, and plants all day, and notes they forage at a faster rate and cover more ground than broilers.

Broad-Breasted Whites are the exception, and they are the default selection on this page. They gain weight fast enough that ranging becomes hard work, and they spend most of the day near the feeder. ATTRA notes the same body-weight difference from the other direction: heritage turkeys can fly, “unlike conventional commercial birds.” The sibling Turkey Housing Size Calculator covers the mobility limits in more detail — a bird that cannot reach a roost bar is not covering a pasture either. If you are raising Broad-Breasted Whites, budget close to the no-foraging figure.

Two more cautions on the foraging numbers generally. ATTRA is explicit that even good foragers “cannot survive on insects and native plants alone,” and its nutrition publication puts pastured poultry at five to 20 percent of diet from pasture depending on bird type, age, and forage quality. And the error is asymmetric: overestimating foraging means you buy too little feed and the birds fall short, which is worse than a bag of surplus feed.

Blackhead: the risk that comes with the pasture

If you are counting on foraging, the ground matters as much as what grows on it. Turkeys are highly susceptible to Blackhead disease (histomoniasis), which is frequently fatal to them and which chickens carry while often showing no signs themselves. The parasite travels inside cecal worm eggs, and turkeys pick it up by eating chicken droppings or earthworms that have ingested those eggs.

The practical rule is about ground, not just housing. Poultry Extension recommends that turkeys not be ranged on pasture used by chickens within the past three years, because the worm eggs persist in soil long after the chickens have gone. There is also no medication approved for blackhead in the US, so prevention is the entire strategy.

The Turkey Housing Size Calculator covers the housing side in full, including why turkeys and chickens should not share a building.

Turkey daily feed by breed and stage

These are the per-bird intake figures the calculator works from. Stages line up with the feed schedule above, so a bird moves down the protein ladder and up the quantity scale as it grows. The final column is what those daily figures add up to across a whole grow-out — the number to budget from.

Figures are daily feed per bird with no foraging. Only the broad-breasted rows rest on published data; heritage and Midget White are our scaling from them. The foraging setting trims the grower and finishing stages for pasture access — not the brooder stage, since poults are not foraging — and it is realistic for heritage and Midget White birds while optimistic for Broad-Breasted Whites.

Common mistakes

1. Using chicken starter for poults. The protein is too low for the rapid early growth turkeys need.
2. Keeping Broad-Breasted Whites past processing age. They gain weight constantly, so feed costs compound and leg and heart problems mount.
3. Not providing adequate protein during the first 8 weeks. Protein-deficient poults have higher mortality, and it is hard to recover lost early growth.

Where to go next

Feed is one of several turkey decisions that connect to each other:

• The Turkey Housing Size Calculator tells you how much space your flock needs.
• The Turkey Egg Production Calculator estimates seasonal egg output and the value of a laying flock.
• The Feed Consumption Calculator shows what the same spend looks like for a flock of chickens.
• The First-Year Cost Calculator rolls feed into the full cost of getting started.
• The Water Consumption Calculator helps size drinkers — turkeys drink about twice the weight of the feed they eat.

Sources

• Feed totals, market weights, and protein stages: Penn State Extension — “Small-Flock Turkey Production” (Hulet, Clauer, Boney, Harper, and Kime). Poults should get “turkey crumbles containing 28 percent protein for the first three to four weeks of life,” then a 26 percent growing ration; “the protein level should not drop below 16 percent in finishing rations.” Its growth tables give 20-week live weights for Broad-Breasted birds. This is the publication most other turkey feed guidance traces back to.
• Lifetime feed per bird by sex, and pastured-turkey practice: ATTRA / NCAT — “Pastured Turkey Production” (Kevin Ellis, 2018). “Over the course of 20 weeks, toms will consume approximately 100 pounds of feed each, while hens will consume approximately 64 pounds,” citing Penn State (Hulet et al., 2004) — the same source gives 36 lb live weight for toms and 24 lb for hens at 20 weeks. Heritage breeds reach marketable weight in about 28 weeks, with toms near 23 lb and hens near 14 lb at 20 weeks. On foraging: turkeys are “excellent and aggressive foragers” that “forage at a faster rate and will cover more ground” than broilers, but “cannot survive on insects and native plants alone.” On breed differences: heritage turkeys can fly, “unlike conventional commercial birds.” Protein stages: 28 percent to eight weeks, 20 percent from 8 to 16 weeks, at least 16 percent from 16 weeks to slaughter.
• Brooding, litter, ventilation, and feed storage: University of Maine Cooperative Extension — Bulletin #2187, “Turkey Brooding and Management”. “Feeds that are stored longer than one month increase the risk of toxic molds in the feed.” Brooding at 95 to 98°F for the first two weeks, three to five inches of pine shavings litter, and 0.05 cfm per pound of body weight of ventilation for confinement-raised turkeys. Its protein schedule runs 28 percent to 6–8 weeks, 22 percent to 12 weeks, 19 percent to 16 weeks, then 16 percent to market.
• Blackhead disease: Poultry Extension — “Blackhead in Poultry.” Turkeys contract histomoniasis by eating chicken manure containing infected cecal worm eggs, or earthworms that have ingested them. “There are no medications currently approved for use against blackhead,” and “it is recommended that turkeys not be ranged on pasture used by chickens within the past three years.”

Only the broad-breasted rows rest on published data. The broad-breasted tom figures are set so that a full 20-week grow-out totals 96.6 lb, against Penn State’s published 100 lb, with a finishing rate near the ~1.3 lb/day their data implies; hens are 0.64 of that and come out at 61.9 lb against a published 64 lb. Everything else is ours. The heritage and Midget White rows are scaled from the broad-breasted figures by body size and grow-out length, not taken from any published turkey table — the heritage tom total of 73.5 lb over 28 weeks is calibrated against a commonly cited ~73 lb heritage figure, but the per-stage split behind it is our own. So are the breeding-stage figures, the stage boundaries (0–8, 8–16 weeks), the foraging multipliers, the 2× feed-weight water ratio, and all price figures including the $26 default and the $22–35 bag range.

Two things changed here that are worth recording. The daily intake table was previously about half the published figures — roughly 47 lb across a grow-out, against a tom’s 100 lb — because it was shaped like a hen’s intake but labelled generically. It was reshaped rather than rescaled, since poult intake was understated most and a uniform multiplier would have pushed the finishing rate past what the sources support. And the heavy-foraging reduction was 35 percent, which traced back to figures describing a wild turkey’s natural diet composition rather than the share of a commercial ration that pasture displaces. It is now 20 percent, matching our chicken calculator and the top of ATTRA’s published 5–20 percent band.