By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WILMINGTON, Ohio — With today’s shaky economy, consumers are looking at ways of reducing the cost of their food bill, even during the holiday season. But two turkey farms in Ohio (one large, one small) show no signs of succumbing to an unstable economy.

Heading into its fourth generation, Johnson Turkey Farms in Wilmington is popular in this part of southwestern Ohio. This 115-acre state-inspected farm is operated by a family of four and specializes in all natural chickens and turkeys with retail and custom processing.

“My family started doing this back in 1921,” said Walt Johnson, who shares today’s duties with his wife, Leslie, and their children, Sarah and Zach. “My grandfather farmed and raised turkeys in Hamilton County, and my father had a turkey farm on the west side of Lebanon. Dad eventually moved here and it wasn’t until 2001 that we built our processing plant.”

Waiting to bless Thanksgiving dinner tables are 400 turkeys and 300 broilers. This family custom dresses turkeys, ducks, chickens, pheasants and guineas. According to Walt, a poultry owner in Ohio can dress and sell up to 1,000 privately-owned birds without being subject to state inspection.

“The secret is we have a lot of repeat customers,” said Walt, a full-time tractor salesman. “We’re growing and the custom processing is the biggest part of our business. We also process other birds for customers, but not game birds.”

The Johnsons purchased just 14 acres when they moved to the Wilmington farm, adding 101 more when they incorporated cattle and many more turkeys and broilers.

“We’re still a small operation, but we do want to raise more,” added Leslie, who works full-time for the Wilmington Local Board of Developmental Disabilities. She also serves as chair for the Clinton County Junior Fair Board.

Theirs is one of only four such fully inspected and licensed processors in Ohio, and the only one residing in the southwestern Ohio inspecting district.

“There are different levels of inspection and we’re at the highest level because it gives us more flexibility on how we can process,” Walt said.

The poultry is raised outdoors, but provided shelter to protect them from the weather. The Johnsons added their meat is hormone- and antibiotic-free, and the birds live on feed grown on the farm.
“We sell to individuals as well as businesses,” Walt said. “We also do custom processing of most poultry except waterfowl. Chickens are available in the spring and fall. Turkeys are available for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

Long lines begin forming outside their small processing facility a few days before Thanksgiving. Each customer has a specified time of arrival.

“We normally sell out every Thanksgiving, but when we do have any leftovers we donate them to non-profit organizations, PTO groups or 4-H foundations,” Leslie said. “We try to give back a little.”

Poultry processing is the biggest part of this family’s farming operation. The two siblings do their fair share of work too. Zach maintains the slaughtering, de-feathering and eviscerating of each bird. Sarah handles the scheduling of customers, answers inquiries, assists customers and with their coolers and handles payments.
On a much smaller scale, on the border of Warren and Clermont counties, is the 50-acre pasture operation of Red Sun Farm. The farm has been in existence since 1998 and has 75 turkeys and 500 broilers. Fifty beef cattle also roam the premises.

“We rely solely on word-of-mouth advertising, and we have a good customer base. Most of our clients come from southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky,” said Farm Manager Zach Thompson. “Here at this turkey farm we stick along the organic line with our animals. We’re not certified organic, but we’re natural.”

The farm itself has been around a long time, with the original farmhouse of the early 1800s still standing. Also on the premises is the oldest standing springhouse in the county. But turkeys are relatively new to this farm, and this difficult-to-find bird hotspot is quite popular with the locals.

“The poultry business has been good this time of the year. We’re thinking about expanding, but right now we raise them here and have them processed in Greenville,” Thompson said.