Butterball Cuts Large, Fresh Turkey Output by 50 Percent Ahead of Thanksgiving

The holiday supply of large, fresh turkeys from leading turkey seller Butterball will be cut short because a number of the birds they planed to sell fresh for the Thanksgiving holiday have not been gaining weight.

According to a news release from New England supermarket chain Big Y World Class Markets, Butterball cut their typical holiday order of large (16 pounds or greater) fresh turkeys by 50 percent. Big Y issued the news release last week after reportedly being notified by Butterball that its order of fresh large turkeys, along with similar orders at supermarkets nationwide, will be cut in half.

It was unclear exactly why the would-be large turkeys were not gaining the necessary weight, but a spokeswoman for Butterball addressed the issue in a written statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

"We experienced a decline in weight gains on some of our farms causing a limited availability of large, fresh turkeys," said spokeswomen Stephanie Llorente. "While we are continuing to evaluate all potential causes, we are working to remedy the issue. We sincerely regret the inconvenience that some of our customers have experienced as a result of this issue."

The statement also said that while there maybe limited availability on their fresh large turkeys, there will be no shortage of frozen turkeys.

"While there may be limited availability on some larger sizes of fresh turkeys, Butterball has shipped 100 percent of customer orders of frozen whole turkeys and products are in distribution across the country," the statement read.

While it seems anyone wanting a Butterball brand turkey this Thanksgiving will be able to at least get a frozen one, the production shortage is noteworthy, as Garner, N.C.-based Butterball supplies 20 percent of the turkey production in the US, which, according to the International Businesses Times, is more than 1 million pounds of turkey a year.

Sixteen pounds is the average weight of an American Thanksgiving turkey, according to the IBT, which added that a bird of that size can feed six adults and six children.

But the shortage of fresh large turkeys from Butterball should not have a significant impact on most tables this Thanksgiving. Other turkey producers have not reported problems getting their birds heavy enough, and only about 15 percent of Americans eat a fresh turkey on Thanksgiving - most choose frozen, according to the National Turkey Federation.

"If you look at the industry, 85 percent of the whole bird turkeys - what we eat at Thanksgiving - is frozen, flash frozen. And it is available in all sizes and in all the brands. Those have been ready, plentiful and stocked in the grocery stores," said National Turkey Federation spokesman Keith Williams, according to SupermarketNews.com.

"That leaves 15 percent of the market for fresh turkeys and if you think about it there's going to be a portion of that 15 percent that's going by any one particular company."