InFocus Magazine — A Family Heritage
Dec/Jan ‘09
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Food for Thought
A Family Heritage
Valley family talks turkey and shares their history of farming…
By Terri Perrin • December & January 2009
I arrive at Stonecroft Farm, click in Merville, tadalafil on a frosty weekday morning and, as I step out of the car I am greeted by turkey gobbles. A big Rottweiler, fast asleep in the driveway, hasn’t even noticed my arrival. But the turkeys—hundreds of them—follow my every move with wave after wave of gobble, gobble, gobble!
I scan the collection of red and white barns and quickly spot one of the farm’s owners, Kathy Beaton. She walks toward me with a pumpkin under each arm and a smile on her face. We meet in front of an outdoor pen full of white and grey turkeys, who watch us suspiciously.
“Just a minute,” Beaton says as she hurls the pumpkins, one by one, over the high fence. The big birds scatter like a tidal wave and then, a split second later, scurry back to where the pumpkins have landed with a splat. The birds chatter excitedly as they gobble up the feast of pumpkin flesh and seeds. In their little bird brains, I imagine, the danger of the flying orange orbs has long been forgotten.
Although I have come to Stonecroft Farm to talk turkey with Kathy Beaton, I soon learn that this beautiful 47-acre parcel of land is more than just a turkey farm. In addition to 1,500 turkeys, there are also 2,000 Chukar partridges, 2,000 ring-necked pheasants and a peacock. The peacock, Beaton says with a chuckle, was a stray that simply appeared a few years ago on Mother’s Day. No one in her family will admit to having brought it home!
There is also a retired Peruvian Paso horse meandering about the farmyard, a handful of beef cattle and a couple of dairy cows in a distant pasture. And then there is the resident Rottweiler, who has finally noticed me, along with a couple of wire-haired terriers to round out the menagerie.
Stonecroft Farm, Beaton explains, has been a labour of love for her and her husband, Glen, and their four children—Brad, Kari, Don and Vasil—for almost 30 years. When they bought the land in 1980 it was nothing but logging slash and scraggly alder. Today, it is a fully operational mixed farm with facilities to raise turkeys from incubation to market weight, a poultry processing facility, expansive pheasant runs, a huge vegetable garden, a commercial blueberry patch and two homes. Son Brad, his wife Casey, and their two young children live in one house; Glen and Kathy live in the other.
“Both Glen and I grew up on farms,” explains Beaton. “I was born and raised in the Comox Valley and Glen moved here from Cayley, Alberta. Both of us had always had an interest in poultry and it was easy to get started with that. Raising poultry required a lower capital investment than other types of livestock. Initially, we started with fancy chickens and pheasants but soon found out there wasn’t a real market for the chickens. So, when my father asked if we could raise 400 tom turkeys for him we agreed to give it a try.”
In many ways, that was a pivotal turning point for the farm’s future. The turkeys, Beaton explains, are direct descendants of her grandfather Harry Gunter’s birds—prize-winning Broad-Breasted Bronzes. A framed certificate from 1949 honoring Harry Gunter with a “Master Turkey Breeder” Award is hung with pride in the Beaton’s turkey processing building.
Harry Gunter immigrated to Canada from England in the 1930s, eventually settling in the Comox Valley. He started a beef cattle operation just off the Old Island Highway north of Courtenay and, a few years later, opened a butcher shop/abattoir, Gunter’s Meats. When he won a trio of turkeys as a prize in a turkey shoot in 1932, Grandfather Gunter began raising turkeys, too.
Years later, his son Bob and his wife Bev bought the adjacent farm and raised their family—and tons of turkeys—there. Sixty years later, both farms and Gunter’s Meats are still owned and operated by members of her large extended family, Beaton says proudly. She and Glen, however, are the only ones still raising turkeys.
Although the flock of turkeys before me looks like any other destined for roasting pans in the Valley, they are unique in that they represent four generations of Comox Valley farmers and more than 75 generations of Comox Valley turkeys! The Beaton’s grandchildren make up the fifth up and coming generation of farmers.
The lineage of the Beltsville Small White turkeys dates back to the early 1930s and is the result of efforts to produce a white turkey, without black pinfeathers. The Broad-Breasted Bronzes trace their roots to the 1900s, when European birds were crossed with wild American stock. This resulted in a turkey that was larger and more robust than the European turkeys, but tamer than the wild ones from North America.
The bloodline, Beaton says, is something she is very proud of and is, in her words, “irreplaceable.” Both breeds are now recognized as “extremely rare” and listed as Heritage Breeds by the American Livestock Breeders Conservatory.
To be designated as Heritage Turkeys, you must be able to prove that the turkeys have resulted from natural mating of both its parents and grandparents. It is interesting to note that, due to their large size, commercial hybrid turkeys have lost the ability to mate naturally. They are bred by artificial insemination. The Heritage Breeds are also renowned for having a long, productive outdoor lifespan, and a slow to moderate growth rate. They reach an average market size—15-20 pounds for hens and 30 pounds for toms—in about 28 weeks. A 20-pound bird is considered by turkey growers to be the perfect size.
This impressive history is one of the reasons Stonecroft turkeys are sold as free-range, but are not certified organic. “While I don’t use pesticides, growth hormones or medications as a routine practice,” Beaton says, “I need to know that if my birds do become sick, I can medicate them if necessary. I can’t risk losing the bloodline.”
Of the hundreds of turkeys being fattened for Christmas dinner at Stonecroft, there is one pen of about 60 birds that have been carefully selected as breeding stock for the next generation. They have been handpicked for their solid structure and healthy vigor and will produce about 1,000 eggs that will be incubated at Stonecroft next spring.
The turkey hens start laying eggs in early March and the eggs are collected and stored until there are enough to incubate. Although not all will hatch, batches of about 300 eggs a time are placed in the incubators every two weeks. Much to the delight of the grandchildren, they hatch in 28 days.
But not all of the turkeys on the Beaton’s farm have such impressive pedigrees. They also buy about 800 commercial hybrid turkey poults (the proper name for ‘chicks’) from agricultural suppliers each year. Like the farm-bred birds, these poults are first nurtured in barns and then, once fully feathered and big enough to be allowed outdoors, they are turned out to range freely in securely fenced pens during the day. For safety’s sake, all are kept in barns at night and during episodes of inclement weather.
Some of the turkeys are ready for processing in early October, just in time for Thanksgiving. The rest—except for the 60 or so breeders that are cared for over the winter—are destined for Christmas dinners. Stonecroft has all of the facilities to slaughter, pluck, clean and package the turkeys according to strict food safety standards. In addition to family members pitching in to help, they bring in a seasonal staff of about six people to help with the process. Turkeys are sold directly to the consumer at the farm gate, as well as supplied wholesale to local specialty food stores.
The Beatons manage their turkey operation under a licensing and quota system relegated by the Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency (CTMA), which works in cooperation with the BC Turkey Marketing Board and other provincial associations. Stonecroft is allocated 15,000 live kilograms a year, which translates into about 1,500 turkeys. It is a number they are satisfied with, since they have no desire to grow their operation any bigger. “Eventually, the kids might want to expand operations,” says Glen Beaton, “but Kathy and I are -content with the number of birds we are permitted to raise.”
The pheasants and partridges raised at Stonecroft fall under a different category. They are able to raise these “exotic” fowl because they have a permit from BC Ministry of Environment & Wildlife. They are brought to the farm on contract from a local sportsman’s club. The chicks arrive at the farm in the early spring, are raised to full adult size with minimal human contact, and then transported to other areas and released into the wild.
When the Beatons look back over a lifetime on the farm, and look forward to the future, they say they find it very gratifying to stand back and see what they have created at Stonecroft Farm.
“Certainly, the industry has changed and we have had to change along with it,” says Kathy Beaton. “Thirty years ago, people just wanted a turkey. Today, they want to know how it has been raised and where it is coming from… and I think that is a good thing.”
Thanks to the Bird Flu and other communicable diseases that have attracted global attention, it is also now necessary to stop the potential spread of disease from one farm to the next. Bio-security is something that all farmers now have to be hyper-vigilant about. Accurate records must be kept on the sale and purchase of live animals and feeds, visitors must sign in, and certain areas of the barns have restricted access. This is something that certainly wasn’t a concern when the Gunter family began raising turkeys more than 60 years ago.
“It has been a tremendous amount of work and it hasn’t always been easy,” says Beaton. “But it is a great feeling of accomplishment. And it is great to now watch our grandchildren’s delight when they accompany me to the barns to collect eggs, watch poults hatch or pick up baby birds.
“We all wish the absolute best for our kids and work hard hoping they will have it a little better than we did,” she adds. “Multigenerational farming certainly gives the next generation a head start in putting a product to market and making a business work, but there has to be far more to it because there are much easier ways to make a living!”
Brad Beaton, who has made the decision to be a key part of Stonecroft’s succession plan, agrees. In addition to helping with all farm operations, he also holds down a full-time job. Despite the effort, he has no regrets.
“We moved to the farm when I was three years old,” recalls Brad. “I fondly remember ‘helping’ my dad clear land with an old Cat dozer. As time advanced, so did my ability to actually be of some use! I recall those early days as a time of great construction, with many large barns being built while our family of five lived in a 750-square-foot garage. I have very fond memories of that little place, with a woodstove that could heat it up to well past cozy! We lived a simple country life and, even though I do recall complaining about my chores from time to time, I always enjoyed the farm life and seeing the fruits of our labor.
“I want to give my kids the same lifestyle and opportunities I had growing up on the farm,” he adds. “My parents were still wanting to farm and I definitely could not afford to buy a whole farm on my own. Together, we came up with a plan that seemed to work for everyone.”
In April 2009, Brad and Casey sold their home and moved into the main farmhouse at Stonecroft. Glen and Kathy moved into a new home they had just built on the farm. The new house, says Brad with a laugh, “is a convenient distance away from the main farm house. I believe no neighbor should be within shotgun range, even family!”
So far, it appears the move to the farm was an excellent decision. Their daughter, Caley, who will be five years old next year, is eager to help with farm chores and her eyes light up when she gets to help operate the Bobcat.
“As Caley and my son Matthew get older,” says Brad, “they will be introduced to age-appropriate work experience. They will be taught everything from operating and maintaining equipment to construction, in addition to your typical farm animal husbandry and horticulture, just like I was.”
“Our farm life is not easy,” concludes Brad, “but we definitely have it easier than my parents did! Hopefully, when our kids look back on their upbringing they will be proud of what their efforts have helped accomplish, and they will have a sense of belonging to something bigger than just themselves. I’m proud of my farm family heritage and am honored to carry on and keep Stonecroft Farm in the family.”