Turkey tradition on the farm

By Matt Reese

The founders of Bowman & Landes started raising free range turkeys in 1948 near New Carlisle. While turkey production practices have changed dramatically in the subsequent four generations of the families on the farm, they still continue that initial tradition in the production of around 75,000 turkeys for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.

“We are a family farm two families of involved in a partnership starting with my grandfather Ken Bowman and his partner Dennis Landes. Currently we have the second, third and fourth generation family members involved and we specialize in raising free range turkeys, meaning they have access to pasture. They are raised with no antibiotics ever and fed a vegetarian diet with no animal byproducts in the feed,” said Drew Bowman, a third-generation owner on the farm. “When we started raising turkeys in the 1940s it was very commonplace for farmers to raise their turkeys in an outdoor environment with access to the fresh air and sunshine.… Continue reading