Narragansett turkey

Cultural

The Narragansett turkey was developed in the late 17th century in southern New England, where colonial farmers crossed Spanish-imported domestic turkeys with the native eastern wild turkey of the surrounding forest. The resulting breed was the dominant New England farm turkey from the 18th century through the early 20th century — productive, hardy, naturally pasture-foraging, and well-adapted to New England climate. Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts farmers raised Narragansetts in barnyard-and-pasture flocks of 50–500 birds, with most birds reaching slaughter weight on pasture and free-range forage with minimal supplemental grain.

The decline began in the 1930s with the development of the Broad-Breasted Bronze and accelerated dramatically after World War II with the introduction of the Broad-Breasted White. By the 1970s Narragansett populations had collapsed to a few thousand birds in the U.S. The Livestock Conservancy classifies the breed as Threatened.

Recovery began in the 1990s through the Heritage Turkey Foundation, Slow Food USA’s Heritage Turkey project, and a small network of heritage-turkey farms supplying the Thanksgiving market. The economic structure is straightforward: Broad-Breasted Whites cost ~$2/lb at the supermarket; heritage Narragansetts at pasture-raised farms cost ~$10–15/lb. The narrow but durable customer base of consumers willing to pay heritage prices supports the recovery. The breed is approximately 14,000 breeding birds today.

See also

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• Shares approach with: livestock-conservancy · dominique-chicken
• Member of: animal