With Thanksgiving approaching, the pair were grateful for the view while completing their usual morning tasks.

The Filbrun Farm is located at 3135 N. Preble County Line Road. Owned by Rebecca and Wendell Filbrun, the farm sits on 88 acres of land and has been in the Filbrun family since the late 1960s.

“It’s just gorgeous, especially in the summer when everything’s blooming,” said John, the oldest of eight Filbrun children, all of whom have worked on the farm at one point.

Credit: Jim Noelker

Credit: Jim Noelker

John owns and operates the Maker’s Meadow, an online market featuring meat from the farm’s 100% grass-fed beef and lamb, along with pasture-raised chicken, turkey, and pork supplemented with organic seeds and grains.

Each November, the Filbrun farm sells about 45 “whole bird” turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving, while offering smaller-portioned options year-round.

The turkeys — as with all other livestock on the farm — are raised without the use of pesticides or herbicides, with a focus on the health and wellbeing of both animal and consumer.

In the farm’s early years, the family raised dairy cows and grew crops like corn and soybeans using conventional farming methods. Today, the family raises mostly livestock with a focus on sustainability.

The Filbruns transitioned to using more organic, farm-to-table practices in 2002, initially raising livestock to feed only their family, and later producing enough to sell.

“At the time, my mom had some health issues and dealt with a lot of joint pain, but eating all grass-fed meat really seemed to help her feel better overall,” John said. “We realized grass-fed, pasture-raised livestock offer more nutrients and we wanted to share those benefits with others.”

Now, the farm produces meat from just under 30 cows per year, along with 200 turkeys, 75 lambs, and 1,300 chickens. The family acquires around 18 pasture-raised pigs each year from a neighboring farm for its pork products.

“We really liked the idea of organic farming; raising animals in a way that’s in sync with nature and more toward the way God designed things to be raised and grown,” John said. “Livestock and animals need to be out on the land rather than cooped up in barns being fed a bunch of high-carb grains.”

John said the shift has been beneficial to the family and farm in many ways, offering not only improved health and a sustainable family business, but also a positive environmental impact.

Credit: Jim Noelker

Credit: Jim Noelker

“With regenerative farming, we have a lot more green grasses growing year-round, which sequesters carbon out of the air,” he said. “We’re also not running a lot of heavy equipment across the land all the time because we’re just moving the animals around the meadow.”

The idea, John said, is to allow livestock to graze freely in one area and cover it with manure before being herded on to another area for grazing.

“It’s a lot of extra work for us to move them around every single day, but we’re mimicking what happened on prairies hundreds of years ago,” he said.

By using these regenerative practices, the farm experiences what John calls “prairie effects,” benefits like taller grasses, healthier soil and animals, and abundant wildlife.

“There were some learning curves and there’s still some death and disease that we have to deal with, but overall, it’s more of a mindset change than anything else,” John said. “God created it all to work very neatly together. The more we try to mechanize things and get our fingers in it, the worse off we are.”

What to know about turkey?

Over the decades, U.S. turkey production has seen significant growth followed by a more recent decline. Between 1960 and the mid-1990s, per capita turkey production rose sharply, peaking in 1996 at 26.8 pounds per person. However, between the mid-1990s and present, per capita turkey production experienced a fairly steep decline. In 2022, annual production had dropped to just 20 pounds per person—a decline of approximately 25%. On an absolute basis, total turkey production peaked in 2008 at 7.9 billion pounds before dropping to an average of around 7 billion annually in recent years.

Several factors can explain this shift in consumer demand. Health concerns and changing dietary preferences play a significant role, with more Americans choosing plant-based diets and reducing overall meat consumption, including turkey. Additionally, rising turkey prices, which increased from $0.80 per pound in 2018 to $1.40 per pound in 2023, have also impacted consumption.

Average Turkey Weight

The average turkey size in the U.S. has nearly doubled since the 1960s

Interestingly, the average size of turkeys raised in the U.S. has nearly doubled since the 1960s, a trend that has helped maintain relatively high production levels even as the total number of turkeys raised has declined.

The number of turkeys raised peaked in 1996 at approximately 303 million birds annually but has since dropped by about 30% to an estimated 218 million birds in 2023. However, the larger size of today’s turkeys—averaging 32 pounds per bird compared to around 18 pounds in the 1960s—has offset the decline in numbers, resulting in a relatively less pronounced decrease in overall production weight.

Turkey Production by State

North Carolina and Minnesota are the top turkey producers in the nation

More than 85% of U.S. turkey production takes place in just 13 states, with North Carolina and Minnesota leading as the top producers. Together, these two states contribute more than 30% of the nation’s total turkey output. North Carolina ranks first, accounting for 15.3% of turkeys by weight, driven in part by a larger average bird size of 36.9 pounds. Minnesota, where turkeys tend to be smaller, ranks second in production weight at 15.1% but raises the largest number of turkeys overall, accounting for 17.7% of the nation’s total birds.

Outside of North Carolina and Minnesota, Indiana is a major producer, contributing 11.9% of U.S. turkey production by weight, followed by Arkansas at 7.8% and Iowa at 7.3%. In general, turkey production is largely concentrated along or east of the Mississippi River, although California stands out as a notable exception.

Ohio turkey by the number

For reference, here is the data for the United States:

Source: Trace One