The Kelly Turkeys stand, which has become a meeting place for the traditional turkey sector, will focus on the ‘real value’ which the company believes its strains provide.

“Our selection criteria for all of our lines has a very clear order of play,” said managing director, Paul Kelly. “First is perfect skeletal formation and excellent walking ability, then eating quality, and finally meat yield and conformation.

“We continually compare our breeds with regular supermarket breeds. The large strain female is cheaper to produce in every way when cost per kg of liveweight is the measurement. But when meat yield and flavour are taken into account, the answers are very different.

“In our test a 4.7kg Super Mini female had a staggering 51 per cent more breast meat than the large industrial female," Mr Kelly added.

4.7-kg industrial hen [left] v Kelly Super Mini female