Turkeys Raised ISSN: 1949-1972 Released September 25, 2026, by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Turkeys Raised up 3 Percent from 2025 Turkeys Raised in the United States during 2026 is forecasted at 199 million, up 3 percent from the number raised during 2025. The top six states account for 68 percent of the turkeys produced in the United States during 2026. The largest turkey producing state is Minnesota, at 34.0 million turkeys, up 1 percent from the previous year. North Carolina produced 29.5 million turkeys, up 5 percent from a year ago. Arkansas produced 21.0 million turkeys, down 2 percent from last year. Indiana produced 20.0 million turkeys, unchanged from last year. Missouri produced 16.0 million turkeys, up 9 percent from last year. Virginia is down 5 percent from the previous year at 14.5 million turkeys. Turkeys Raised - States and United States: 2025 and 2026 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Turkeys raised : 2026 as State :-------------------------------: percent : 2025 : 2026 : of 2025 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- : ------ 1,000 head ----- percent : Arkansas .....................: 21,500 21,000 98 California ...................: 4,300 (D) (D) Indiana ......................: 20,000 20,000 100 Iowa .........................: 10,800 11,500 106 Michigan .....................: 4,300 4,500 105 Minnesota ....................: 33,500 34,000 101 Missouri .....................: 14,700 16,000 109 North Carolina ...............: 28,000 29,500 105 Ohio .........................: 6,200 6,300 102 Pennsylvania .................: 7,600 8,200 108 : South Dakota .................: 1,800 1,900 106 Virginia .....................: 15,300 14,500 95 West Virginia ................: 4,000 (D) (D) : Other States 1/ ..............: 21,500 31,100 145 : United States ................: 193,500 198,500 103 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (D) Withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual operations. 1/ Includes State estimates not shown and States withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual operations. Statistical Methodology Survey Procedures: Data for turkeys raised estimates are collected from all known operations raising 1,000 or more turkeys annually. NASS regional offices maintain a list of all known turkey grow-out operations. Approximately 250 turkey grow-out operations are contacted in September and February. The data collected were received by electronic data reporting, mail, and telephone. Estimating Procedures: Turkeys raised preliminary estimates include young turkeys intended for meat production and breeder turkeys reaching maturity during the marketing year. These estimates exclude turkeys lost to disease or those destroyed. Placement of turkey poults from the monthly Turkey Hatchery Survey and indications from the September Turkeys Raised Survey provide the basis for the preliminary estimates published in September. Final estimates, published in April, use indications from the February Turkeys Raised Survey in addition to updated hatchery data. Other indications for the final estimates are obtained from monthly slaughter totals and check-off data provided by state turkey or poultry associations. Revision Policy: Estimates from the previous year are subject to revision when final raised estimates are made in April. Revisions are primarily based on updated hatchery and slaughter data. Estimates will also be reviewed after data from the five-year Census of Agriculture are available. No revisions will be made after that date. Reliability: Turkeys raised estimates are based on a census of all known turkey grow-out operations, and therefore have no sampling error. However, estimates are subject to errors such as omissions, duplication, mistakes in reporting or recording, and processing of the data. While these errors cannot be measured directly, they are minimized through strict quality controls in the data collection process, and through a careful review of all reported data for consistency and reasonableness. To assist in evaluating the reliability of the estimates in this report, the "Root Mean Square Error" for number of turkeys raised is shown in the following table. The "Root Mean Square Error" is a statistical measure based on past performance and is computed using the differences between first and final estimates. The "Root Mean Square Error" for number of turkeys raised over the past 10 years is 1.9 percent. This means that chances are 2 out of 3 that the final estimate will not be above or below the current estimate of 199 million turkeys by more than 1.9 percent. Chances are 9 out of 10 that the difference will not exceed 3.4 percent. Reliability of September Turkeys Raised Estimates [Based on data for the past ten years] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Root mean : 90 percent : Difference between first and latest estimate : square error : confidence : : : : : : : level :---------------------------------------------------------- Item : : : : : : Years : : : : : :------------------------- : : : Average : Smallest : Largest : Below : Above : : : : : : latest : latest ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : percent percent ----------- 1,000 ---------- --- number --- : Turkeys raised ...............: 1.9 3.4 2,950 1,000 11,000 7 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service - Estimation Branch Contacts For more information about specific data items, please contact the Estimation Branch staff members below. You can also email inquiries to nass@usda.gov. Anthony Prillaman, Associate Deputy Administrator............................................................................... (202) 720-2127 Darin Jantzi, Section Chief..................................................................................................... (701) 412-5953 Broiler Hatchery, Chicken Hatchery, Eggs, Hogs and Pigs, Layers, Sheep and Goats Jeff Lemmons, Section Chief..................................................................................................... (202) 973-3272 Cattle, Cattle on Feed, Capacity of Refrigerated Warehouses, Cold Storage Fleming Gibson, Section Chief (Acting).......................................................................................... (202) 236-2428 Catfish, Census of Aquaculture, Dairy Products, Livestock Slaughter, Poultry Slaughter, Trout, Turkey Hatchery, Turkey Raised Julie Weber, Section Chief...................................................................................................... (202) 317-0165 Cost of Pollination, Egg Products, Honey, Honey Bee Colonies, Milk Production Access to NASS Reports For your convenience, you may access NASS reports and products the following ways: All reports are available electronically, at no cost, on the NASS web site: www.nass.usda.gov. The national specific reports are available via a free e-mail subscription. To set-up this free subscription, visit www.nass.usda.gov and click on "National" in upper right corner above "search" box to create an account and select the reports you would like to receive. 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