Utah farmers produce enough turkeys in a year that every single person in the state — including all of the babies and vegetarians and others who just don't like turkey — could have their own bird this Thanksgiving.
Just think of the leftovers.
Only seven other states can claim that they have more turkeys than people, and Utah is the only Western state on the list.
This stat comes from the federal Agriculture Department and was first highlighted by MetricMaps.
The 2012 government survey found turkey farmers in Utah produced 2.89 million birds at a time when the state population was 2.85 million.
A few weeks ago, Gov. Gary Herbert proclaimed Utah's population passed the 3 million mark.
Have turkey farmers kept up the pace?
You bet your cranberry sauce they did.
As of Sept. 1, Utah's turkey industry this year has produced 3.6 million birds, according to John Hilton, a federal Agriculture statistician based in Utah. In 2014, the number topped 4 million for the full calendar year.
Utah still is nowhere close to Minnesota, the nation's turkey king. That 2012 survey found that the Gopher State had a population of 5.4 million people while it produced an eye-popping 19.4 million turkeys. Other states where turkeys outnumber people include North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa. Some significant turkey-producing states don't make the list because they also have bigger populations. For example, Virginia had more than 5 million turkeys, but it has a human population north of 8 million.
In the West, the only state that produces more turkeys than Utah is California (4.5 million birds), but that seems less impressive when you consider that massive state produces more of just about everything than Utah.
A bigger question is how did Utah become a Western mecca for turkeys? Hilton wasn't sure, so we reached out to Larry Lewis with the state's Agriculture and Food Department. He answered that question with just one word: "Norbest."
That's the big marketing cooperative based in Moroni that sells turkeys raised by 41 farmers in Utah. Norbest has been in operation 85 years and got its start in the dust-bowl era of the 1930s, when sugar-beet farmers saw their crops fail. Some started raising turkeys in their basements and soon combined their efforts.
Norbest CEO Matt Cook isn't satisfied with current production levels, which he puts at 5 million turkeys, far higher than federal estimates. His goal is to see that number surpass 9 million birds per year, three for every person in the state, in the next five years.
To do that, he hopes to see an expansion of natural gas in rural Utah, the cheapest source to heat grow houses. The birds live in these houses between three and five months before they are slaughtered.
"We have much greater demand than we have supply for," said Cook, who noted that Norbest products are sold in 34 states and exported to 26 countries.
If the turkey numbers impress you, consider this: For every turkey in Utah, there are four chickens.
mcanham@sltrib.com
Twitter: @mattcanham
