From farm to table – preparing Thanksgiving turkeys in Switzerland

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The turkeys spend their days in the meadow; at night they are housed in so-called igloos to protect them from the cold and from foxes swissinfo.ch

The turkey enclosure can be made larger or smaller depending on conditions, for example if the ground becomes muddy swissinfo.ch

In the morning the animals are fed (no hormones or antibiotics) and their stalls are cleaned swissinfo.ch

Bühlhof began as a dairy farm in 1942. Turkeys were added in 1984 swissinfo.ch

An aviary for wild bees and a goat's skull on the side of a stall swissinfo.ch

Christian Muheim takes an order for a turkey swissinfo.ch

The turkeys weigh between four and 18 kilograms swissinfo.ch

Before the turkey is decapitated, it is stunned by a blow to the head. Muheim says he apologises to every animal he kills swissinfo.ch

In the meantime, Luzia Muheim picks raspberries. In summer, berries replace turkeys as the core business swissinfo.ch

A hot bath makes it easier to remove the feathers swissinfo.ch

A rapidly rotating plucking machine removes the turkey's feathers swissinfo.ch

Remaining feathers are plucked by hand, the feet are broken off and the innards are removed. Heart, liver, stomach and neck are delivered on request swissinfo.ch

The bird is cleaned with a hose inside and out swissinfo.ch

The feathers are then disposed of and the floor cleaned swissinfo.ch

The meat spends a few hours in a cold room before being cleaned again and then packaged swissinfo.ch

After that, the other animals stretch their legs around the farm swissinfo.ch

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More and more turkeys are ending up on festive dinner tables in Switzerland. swissinfo.ch visits Bühlhof farm in central Switzerland, where the animals are free-range and slaughtered by hand. 

Overlooking Lake Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Rigi, is the municipality of Greppen. BühlhofExternal link is home to Christian and Luzia Muheim, as well as their three children, 12 milk cows, three Stiefelgeiss goats, a cat and around 200 turkeys. And no partridges or pear trees in sight. 

The animals come to the family farm at six weeks old. Almost 400 turkeys are fattened and slaughtered every year – the females at 100 days, the males at 130 days. One large buyer is the catering section of the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company, but most of the family’s income is from direct sales. Turkeys weighing up to ten kilograms (22lb) can be ordered from October to December – and demand is increasing. 

Meat industry umbrella group Proviande says per capita consumption of poultry has risen over the past decade from 10kg to 12kg a year. More is being imported, but more is also being produced domestically. 

Andi Schmal, head of Switzerland’s largest turkey producer Frifag, confirms this. Over the past ten years, he says, sales of Thanksgiving or Christmas turkeys have increased more than tenfold: almost 10,000 birds are slaughtered for the two occasions.

(Translated from German by Thomas Stephens)