2025 saw the population of U.S. farm-raised turkeys decline. But that's not the only thing about turkeys that shrank during the past year. The average live weight of turkeys has also fallen.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's initial estimate of the live weight of the turkeys that were raised during 2025 is 32.0 pounds, which is down from 32.8 points in 2024 and is coincidentally back to what the average farm-raised turkey weighed in 2023.
First, let's see how the live weight of farm-raised turkeys in 2025 compares with the averages recorded in previous years. The following interactive chart shows how the size of live turkeys raised on U.S. farms has changed from 1970 through 2025.
Even at 32 pounds, farm-raised turkeys in 2025 are double the average size of wild "heritage" turkeys in the U.S. Virtually all of the increase in the size of farm-raised turkeys has taken place since 1980. Since 2020, the growth of U.S. farm-raised turkeys has stagnated largely because of two factors.
The first is the inflation unleashed by the Biden administration that sent feed prices soaring, making it much more costly for turkey farmers to raise turkeys. The second is bird influenza, in which the culling of turkey flocks to limit its spread has reduced the available supply, leading turkey producers to process smaller birds for market than they ordinarily would to meet consumer demand.
What that all means is that the growth of the average farm-raised turkey has stagnated since 2021, making the period since like the great stagnation of the 1970s. Coincidentally, that era was also defined by high inflation in the U.S. economy.
References
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Turkeys Raised. [PDF Document]. 26 September 2025.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). U.S. Quarterly Animal Product Production. Nov Proj. Turkey (Ready To Cook Weight, millions of pounds). [PDF Document]. 14 November 2025.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meat statistics tables, recent. Table 3 - Livestock and poultry live and dressed weights. [Excel Spreadsheet]. 30 September 2025.
Image credit: Close-up of a turkey's head and neck photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash.
Labels: thanksgiving
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