Sho Nuf Turkey Farm In Howard County Raises 20K Birds For Thanksgiving Feasts

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Instead of rummaging through a pile of frozen turkeys at the grocery store, Marylanders can look to Sho Nuf Turkey Farm in Fulton for a fresh, locally raised bird this Thanksgiving.

Chris Bohrer, who owns the third-generation turkey farm with his wife, Tanya, said the operation was started by his wife's grandparents in 1938.

"They received turkeys as a wedding present when they married in July. They sold the turkeys for Thanksgiving that first year and were inspired to start Maple Lawn Turkey Farm. My father-in-law and his brother took over the operation eventually, and then my wife and I took over in 2019. We changed the name and rebranded, but we use the same facility and the same practices for decades," Chris Bohrer told Patch.

Tanya Bohrer has been involved in turkey production all her life, while Chris Bohrer has been a part of the family's operation for 36 years. He's a retired police officer who is hands-on with the turkey farm. Tanya Bohrer works off the farm and doubles up on her role with the turkey farm as they head into the holiday season.

"I retired last June 2022 from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office after 32 years. After being in law enforcement, dealing with turkeys is easy. It's a different kind of work; it's fun and I enjoy it. I used to take vacation time to work on the farm, but now it's my main focus. Outside of November, I'm at the farm probably six days a week for five or six hours. When we get to November, I'll be there every day for eight to 12 hours a day, sometimes even 14 hours a day. December it starts to slow back down and then we take a break in January and February to clean out the barns and prepare for another growing cycle," Chris Bohrer told Patch.

Sho Nuf Turkey Farm raises seasonal turkeys, so the Bohrers place an order in January for about 20,000 baby turkeys, known as poults, that are then harvested in November. The Bohrers prefer a white broad-breasted turkey at their farm and they raise only hens, no toms.

They spend February and March preparing their barns and equipment for the delivery, and then the turkeys arrive in June in intervals.

"We space them out every two to three weeks throughout the summer so the birds are different sizes when they're harvested in November during a 12- to 14-day harvest period," Chris Bohrer said. "We are an exempt plant and can process 20,000 birds maximum. It's a lot of turkeys. Most people do a couple thousand. But it works for us. We can have a very tight rein on quality control. The heavy labor on the farm starts in the summer into fall."

The turkeys need constant attention as they grow, he explained. Even though the birds are on an automatic feeder and watering system, if a water line goes down, it must be fixed immediately, for example.

"They can't go without water or feed for hours. It seems everything breaks outside of business hours. My father-in-law still helps us and functions as our consultant. He's 77 and he's been doing this his entire life. He'll offer suggestions of things for me to try. Because we're a small operation, we have two of everything on hand so if a motor breaks on a Friday for a feed line, I can't not feed the turkeys all weekend, so we have backup motors, backup parts and more," Chris Bohrer said.

The Howard County farm sells turkeys to retail establishments, bulk retail to companies looking for the gift of a turkey to employees, and individual sales.

"Ninety percent of our sales are to individuals. Customers just fill out a reservation form online on our website, stating they want a bird. We do our best to harvest the size they want, but our customers are aware that their bird may or may not fall within their desired size," Chris Bohrer said. "Probably more than 6,000 of our customers come from the internet. On a recent Friday, she had 360 emails for turkey orders waiting for her."

The farm's website said Thanksgiving sales begin Nov. 10. The cost for fresh turkeys is $3.05 per pound, with sizes ranging from 10 to 44 pounds.

Bohrer noted that his birds are not harvested until early November, so they're still fresh for Thanksgiving.

"Knowing where their food comes from is huge for people. I think COVID pushed that to the forefront. They can come and talk to me, the guy growing the turkeys locally all summer long. Our turkeys also are different than others because they're never trucked anywhere, caged or cooped up. They arrive in a van at one day old and that's it. Other places will keep them in crates and ship them off to be processed, but our processing plant is here on the farm. We open the gates and have channels set up for them to walk from the barn to the plant so there's no stress on them," Chris Bohrer said.

The way the birds are processed is important, too, he said. The turkeys must be cold within eight hours of processing and Sho Nuf Turkey Farm maximizes that full eight hours before they're packaged, so they sit in an ice water bath that helps them be more juicy and tender than other birds, he said.

"I haven't eaten another turkey in 40 some years. Our turkeys are simply the best tasting," Chris Bohrer said. "We have cooking suggestions on our website from my wife's grandmother that are the best."