It’s finally the season where our turkeys are out on pasture. In fact, I just came in from moving a flock to range on one of these postcard-perfect spring days we’ve had. By the time this hits your inbox, the birds will be well adjusted to their new home outdoors, cruising through the range and following along as we move their home through the grass each week.

This is the time of year that our points-of-difference are so visually evident. Barn doors open, birds out in the sun. Whether outside in a yard pen or on a pasture range, this type of poultry farming – free range – isn’t the norm today. As I so often say, we’re the throwbacks still doing it, even though it was industry standard just decades ago. When we host visitors on the farm, I often struggle to convey just how rare outdoor access is in commercial poultry farming today, but suffice it to say we’re among the few dinosaurs that haven’t gone extinct.

Like our raised without antibiotics program, we don’t grow free-range turkeys because it’s easier. In fact, both require extra work and care. There are fences to maintain, feed to haul, yards to seed, and weather to contend with. Both on our farm and our partner farms, we embrace the extra effort, because we believe in it. These are the very real differences that set us apart in a meat world filled with big-brand-sameness. We do it to grow a better turkey and make better finished products.

I feel that difference deeply on days like today. Sliding open the barn doors and letting the birds curiously head off into the springtime outdoors. Different seems like a good place to be.