Growth of Bronze Turkeys

TURKEY males normally grow faster than females from the time they hatch until about 30 weeks of age (Funk, 1930Funk, 1943; Kodinetz, 1940; Asmundson and Lerner, 1940). This difference in growth apparently continues until the birds cease to grow and the difference is shown by either weight increments (gain in weight) or percentage rate of growth. Differences between groups of birds in early rate of growth are known to be compensated for by differences in later growth in turkeys (Asmundson and Lloyd, 1936; Asmundson and Lerner, 1940) as well as in chickens (Kempster and Parker, 1936; Kempster, 1941). The investigators cited found that differences between strains, in temperature or in the rations fed during the growing period apparently adequately accounted for the differences in the rate of growth observed. Since rate of growth is of importance in turkey meat production it seemed desirable to obtain further information about the relationships …