Why consistency matters in turkey nutrition

9 June 2026

7 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

North America

Thomas D’Alfonso, PhD, Worldwide Animal Nutrition Focus Area Director at the U.S. Soybean Export Council, recently spoke to The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell about the value of uniformity in the turkey flock. 

Turkey producers are operating on long production cycles with a lot of capital tied up in the bird. When nutritionists are making feed decisions for turkeys, why is the conversation about ingredient consistency even more consequential here than it might be in broilers or layers? 

The thing to remember about turkeys is that they're growing over long periods of time and when they reach processing age just before harvest, it's important for them to be uniform because there's limited space at that time. They're eating; their body mass is growing. 

The barn is full and what you want is for the animals to be uniform for a couple of reasons. One is that they have equal access to feeder space and water. Second, when they reach the processing plant, they are within the target weight range for the birds. They could be sold as whole birds or they could be sold as cut up parts, so having them more uniform means more revenue. 

Breast meat yield is the primary revenue driver in commercial turkey production. How does what happens in the feed, specifically the quality of the protein source, connect to what ends up in the yield report at the processing plant?

First let me start with the protein source – it should be soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy. The reason is that it's highly digestible in essential amino acids that are critical for that breast meat yield. The methionine, threonine, tryptophan and lysine are all in great proportions for the needs of the turkey to produce that large breast meat yield that brings the highest source of revenue. 

Also, when it comes to consistency, you can rely on this ingredient to have those nutrients that are needed, the essential amino acids as well as metabolizable energy. For of these reasons, adopting a preference for soybean meal made from U.S. Soy brings the biggest payback for turkey producers. 

Turkey operations often talk about flock uniformity at processing as a major value driver. How does the consistency of soybean meal quality over a 16 to 20 week grow out affect whether a flock comes in tight or variable at the end? 

It's always good to get a flock off to the right start with a well-balanced starter diet. There could be a dozen different formulas that are used to produce the turkey, and you’re expecting the nutrient composition to be as formulated. That's because as the animals grow, if they start off and they're less uniform, that lack of uniformity spreads over time and they become less and less uniform. 

What’s important in turkey production is to get them to the processing plant at the target weight because in that weight range, they receive the highest revenue per pound or kilogram of turkey meat produced. That's why it's important to have a consistent ingredient like soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy. 

Since it's cumulative, it just continues to become a bigger problem, right?

Right, you're feeding one diet to a whole flock of animals. You can't precisely feed each animal. What you want is for the animals to be as uniform as possible, so when you make the diet changes and have a target nutrient composition, it matches animals’ needs better. 

Whereas if you have a variable flock, then you're not meeting the needs of all the animals. You're either under-formulating or over-formulating nutritional needs. That's why this effect of variability in animal size is particular for turkey producers because over time that difference can get bigger and bigger. 

Turkey diets are phase fed with very different amino acid targets from pulp starter through finisher. What does superior amino acid digestibility and soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy mean practically for a nutritionist managing the phase feeding program and where does variability and digestibility do the most damage? 

The feeding program is going to be most economical when it more precisely meets the needs of the animal. When you're changing the diet in the phase feeding program, having the primary source of the essential amino acids and the metabolizable energy be consistent is particularly important. 

Now, the reason I keep saying soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy is because soybean meal derived from other origins, particularly tropical climates, such as Brazil, require mechanical drying that can cause heat damage. 

We've seen U.S. Soy all over the world have five times less damage than soy coming from Brazil. The heat damage that I mentioned comes from immature beans that are green in color which also have lower digestibility. The various types of damage that we see from beans from Brazil causes less digestibility of those essential nutrients. This is important in turkey production, because when you're formulating a diet, you're expecting those nutrients to be in there. It's really the digestibility and the consistency of those nutrients that are the most important to get into the animal. 

There's research showing that amino acid digestibility differences between soybean meal origins, documented in both broiler chickens and turkey poults, translates into meaningful growth and feed efficiency differences. How would you characterize the magnitude of that effect for turkey producers specifically? What does it mean at the scale for a commercial operation? 

We've seen research showing differences in feed conversion of more than three points, and in fact, even between five to 10 points in some cases of feed conversion. These are enormous feed cost differences. It all comes back to the digestibility of essential amino acids and metabolizable energy. 

When you have a source of digestible amino acids and metabolizable energy, such as soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy, you can rely on those nutrients being digestible, consistent and the animal producing to its genetic potential to get the most revenue, the most profit and the least feed costs. 

Five to 10 points in feed conversion is significant, Tom. That’s quite a wide range, right? 

We did some estimates of poultry producers, various types of poultry, producing 20,000 metric tons of feed per month. For operations of that size, it's millions of dollars. It was $3 million a year in extra profit because less feed is required. 

More of the poultry meat, in this case, turkey meat reached the processing plant within target weight. There was higher revenue and lower feed costs. Making the choice of the essential ingredient, the soybean meal by adopting a preference for soybean meal made from U.S. Soy when compared to performance from Brazilian soybean meal, had enormous economic consequences. 

In a production cycle that runs nearly five months for heavy toms, small differences in average daily gain and feed conversion ratio compound significantly. How should turkey producers think about the cumulative economic impact of consistently superior digestibility across the entire grow out versus a cheaper ingredient that underperforms week after week? 

It's a long grow-out cycle, practically as long as pigs. It's several months. In many ways, you're planning the last feeding period. So, what is that target weight for them to go to the processing plant? What are the nutrient requirements of the animal at that final stage? As you work backwards, you must consider what are the nutrient requirements to get the genetic potential of growth and feed efficiency at each stage leading up to that weight at the processing plant.  And what are the assumptions about the amount of feed that will be consumed. 

Metabolizable energy affects feed consumption, and so having a consistent source of metabolizable energy means that you can more predictably plan the phase feeding so that the animals consume more predictably. You need to balance the diet on the essential amino acids, and this is done over a long period of time. It can be tricky to do if you have a highly variable source of a critical ingredient, namely soybean meal, unless it's consistent and highly digestible like U.S. Soy.

U.S. Soy carries a sustainability story that matters increasingly to retail and food service buyers downstream of the turkey operation. How does that sustainability credential connect to the business opportunities your customers are trying to capture? 

The sustainability practices of the U.S. Soy farmer exist because they are family-owned farms. They're passing on the farm from one generation to the next. These multi-generational farmers know the conditions of their soil. They minimize the number of inputs required. They maximize the organic material in the soil to produce a consistent high-quality product, namely U.S. Soy. It's those sustainability practices that lead to consistency and digestibility. 

If you are a turkey producer and you're marketing your product, you can tell the consumer and your shareholders that if you adopted a preference for U.S. Soy, you've lowered your carbon footprint. You can market your product as fed with U.S. Soy.

This provides customer loyalty to your brand and confidence from shareholders that you're running a good business. When consumers see that businesses are run well, they have confidence in the quality of the turkey that they're going to be eating. By adopting a preference for sustainable U.S. Soy, you can lower the cost of feed, improve animal performance and increase your brand recognition.