Tough times on the turkey farm

Anthony Schmidt doesn't want to go back to working construction, but the way turkeys have been selling, he says, he might not have a choice.

Schmidt, who owns Triple D Farm and Hatchery in Palmer, knows he'll never get rich farming, but he likes being home when his kids get home from school, and he likes being able to teach and take care of his kids himself instead of having them in some daycare.

Triple D carries on a longstanding agrarian tradition in Palmer, which was colonized by Midwestern farmers as part of a Works Progress Administration program in 1935. Schmidt's birds range free with no hormones or antibiotics.

"My chicken costs more than the chicken in the store; I knew that when I started this," he said. "When times are tough and people are cutting corners, they cut back on high-quality food products."

Last fall Schmidt's sales suffered a double whammy: After having sold out of turkeys the previous few years, Triple D increased production for last Thanksgiving only to watch the economy lose its head. Then Fred Meyer launched a holiday promotion giving away a free turkey to any customer who spent over $100.

Schmidt ended up with a lot of unsold gobblers, and donated about 7,000 pounds of turkey to food banks and churches. Since his birds sell for $4.10 a pound, that comes out to almost $30,000 up in smoke. The season's labor and feed were already covered, but the farm didn't get paid, Schmidt said. Still, he added, "it was better than letting it go to waste."

Triple D Farm and Hatchery made the national news last fall when then-Gov. Sarah Palin cheerfully spoke to reporters as turkeys were slaughtered behind her.

That was a fun day, Schmidt said.

"We had it all prepared and ready for her, and she got right in there with the turkeys and everything was great," he said.

He was annoyed, though, when footage aired by KTUU Channel 2 went national. Bunny-huggers and kooks called to complain about the dead turkeys, but locally people were supportive, and he got encouraging phone calls from as far away as Philadelphia.

This year all of the farm's turkeys are reserved, but that's because Schmidt only raised about 180. Last year he brought up almost 700. Turkeys aren't the only bird he's scaling down on. In the year before the recession hit, Schmidt raised about 60,000 head of birds, including chicks, ducks, and pheasants. This year he's down to about 30,000 birds.

"We're just hoping we can come out the other end of this thing on an even keel and can get out of debt," Schmidt said.

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul_alaskadispatch.com.