If conversation with the in-laws runs a little thin around the holiday dinner table, be ready to save the day with these facts from the National Turkey Federation. (That’s the trade group for growers, processors, distributors and others in the turkey industry, not the guys on your competitor’s’ crew down the road.)

According to the federation’s Web site, eatturkey.com:

• Commercial turkeys have been bred to have white feathers so they leave no unsightly pigment spots when plucked.

• It’s estimated that turkeys have 3,500 feathers at maturity.

• A baby turkey is called a poult and is tan and brown. Toms are male turkeys. Hens are female turkeys.

• Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the official bird of the United States, preferring it to the bald eagle. “The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and a true original native of America,” he wrote.

• Only tom turkeys gobble. Hens make a clicking noise.

• Turkeys are not raised in cages, they roam freely around the barn. Research has shown that to mistreat a turkey would be economically detrimental to the grower.

Turkey Anatomy:

• Caruncle — a red-pink fleshy growth on the head and upper neck of the turkey.

• Snood — a long, red, fleshy growth from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak.

• Wattle — a bright red appendage at the neck.

• Beard — a black lock of hair found on the chest of the male turkey.

• Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour and can run 20 miles per hour.

• Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the president of the United States with a live turkey and two dressed turkeys in celebration of Thanksgiving. The news media report on the “pardon” of the live bird by the president and, after the ceremony, the lucky turkey retires to Disneyland to live out its years.

• Turkey eggs are tan with brown specks and are larger than chicken eggs. The incubation period for a turkey egg is 28 days.

• During a 25-week laying cycle, a hen normally lays 80 to 100 eggs.

• More than 247 million turkeys were raised in the United States in 2009 and the same is expected for 2010.

• A three-ounce serving of turkey breast contains 117 calories, 0.64 grams of fat and 26.2 grams of protein. That compares to 140 calories, 3.1 grams of fat and 26.7 grams of protein of the same amount of chicken breast.

• A turkey hen usually takes 14 weeks to mature and weighs 15.3 pounds when processed. The tom (male) takes 18 weeks to reach a market weight of 33 pounds. Hens are processed and usually sold as whole birds, while toms are processed into products such as cutlets, tenderloins, turkey sausage and deli meats.

• Turkey consumption in the U.S. has increased 109 percent since 1970. Half of all turkey consumed in 1970 was during the holidays; today that number is about 31 percent as more people eat turkey year-round.

• Total turkey consumption in the U.S. during 2009 was approximately 5.2 billion pounds. That’s 16.9 lbs. of turkey per person. (By comparison, annual per capita chicken consumption was 79.6 pounds; beef, 61.2 pounds; pork, 50.1 pounds. Lamb consumption was merely one pound per person.)

• The top turkey-producing states in the U.S. in 2009 were: Minnesota, 45.5 million birds; North Carolina, 35.5 million; Arkansas, 29 million; Missouri, 18.5 million; and Virginia, 17 million.

• The far-and-away top turkey processors in 2009 were (in millions of pounds): Butterball, 1,330; Jennie-O Turkey Store, 1,270; and

Cargill Value Added Meats, 1,165.
Heading up the remaining processors were Farbest Foods Inc.
and Kraft Foods Inc. (Oscar Mayer) with 333 and 289 millions of pounds, respectively.