For three generations, the Quast family have been raising turkeys from their property near Tamworth NSW, raised with all the love and devotion only matched by the most important meal of the year... your Christmas lunch!

It’s fair to say that Christmas is a time for family to gather, to celebrate the year that has been and enjoy a delicious meal prepared with love and devotion. For many, the centerpiece of Christmas lunch is the turkey. Some enjoy a whole turkey, whilst other families opt for a turkey crown. For the Quast family, third-generation poultry farmers from Northern New South Wales, producing turkeys is a way of life, a labour of love and a year-round process. They pour every ounce of love and devotion they have into rearing turkeys that eventually form the centerpiece of your Christmas lunch, arguably the most important meal of the year!

A precursor to this story is that there is a strong family name passed down from generation to generation of Quast family men, who come to work together on the family turkey farm. That name being Colin. Quast Turkeys was established by Colin Snr. in the 1950’s upon the purchase of a block of land located just 15minutes from Tamworth, NSW. At just 17 years of age, he began to build the family home and first outbuildings brick by brick alongside his father, even crafting those bricks by hand from the farm quarry. The Quast family have a longstanding history of entrepreneurship and business acumen in the Tamworth region with Colin Snr.’s father owning and operating an ice cream factory and subsequently a cordial factory in Tamworth. A pivot to Turkey farming was a little left of field, but they were no strangers to hard work and seeing a thriving poultry industry in Australia at the time, they wanted a piece of that pie. And so, they set about building what would become the largest independent turkey farm in Australia some 70 years later, producing 65,000 turkeys each year, three quarters of which find their way to the Christmas table in homes across the country.

Today, the turkey industry has shrunk somewhat since Colin Snr. commenced operations back in the 1950’s. Quast Turkeys are the largest independent turkey operation in Australia, today run by husband-and-wife Colin Jnr. (who we will subsequently refer to as Col) and Vicki Quast. They have remained at the top of their game through a dedicated approach to turkey rearing which hinges on keeping the entire production process in house, breeding, through rearing the turkeys to processing, it all happens on farm, and in many instances by a Quast family member named Colin. 

Col and Vicki’s son, Colin James, also works on the farm along with his wife Tahlia and their three young children, Colin Jock (4), Angus (2) and Savannah (4 months). It truly is a family affair at Quast Turkeys with each family member invested in daily operations. As a family business, nurturing the next generation of farmers is just as important to Col Quast who cherishes the opportunity to work alongside his sons and grandchildren every day.

Since 1975 Quast Turkeys have been breeding their own turkeys, becoming the only small independent turkey growers in Australia to do so. Around 750 hens are artificially inseminated each week by semen collected from the resident stags (a male turkey), or a tom if you’re American. Subsequently, the fertilised eggs are collected from the breeding sheds and transferred to the cold room, where the embryos lie dormant for up to fourteen days before being hatched in larger groups. The resulting poults (young turkeys) are homed in the warm brooder house, requiring a warmer climate than one might expect to thrive.

Here the poults remain for five weeks before being separated out into the flock to be raised in the free-range pasture, or the flock being grown out in the sheds. Only some of Quast Turkeys are free range due to the inherent bio security risk of wild raised birds, but a select few are raised in 0.8ha paddocks to cater to the free-range market.
The turkeys are then grown out on the same feed ration whether they are free-range, or barn raised. A high protein diet is the order of the day with feed rations consisting of protein meal, Quast produced grains, vitamins, minerals and a touch of canola oil. With this high protein approach to feeding, a bird would be considered fully grown in just nine weeks, with a female reaching the ideal 3kg table weight in this time.

For bio security purposes, no live birds are brought in or out of the farm, except the singular turkey who finds its way to the Tamworth Show petting enclosure each year, though they are not permitted to return to the farm. All processing of the birds is done on farm too, and for Vicki this speaks to the family's focus on animal welfare. For the Quast family, they raise their birds with welfare at the forefront of all of their operations. Their sheds are monitored by high-tech computers managing temperature and controlling the ventilation to create the ideal environment for the birds. With a processing plant on farm, Col can drop in at any time and see exactly what’s going on or what is being packed. Up to 800 birds are processed at Quast Turkeys each day, and subsequently stored on farm in their refrigerated storage facility with space for nearly 300 pallets of stock.

Once the turkeys leave the farm, they find their way to butchers and wholesalers across Australia. Some turkeys are retained for sale in the farm shop, open once a month throughout the year and open from 8am every day in December, as the festive season kicks into overdrive. Regular customers at the farm shop become like family members, especially at Christmas time, sharing the joy and excitement of the festive season. They share their plans for Christmas lunch, even trading secret family recipes, and of course picking up the all-important turkey. Vicki views this side of the farm as a privilege and something almost unique to the Quast family operation, that they get to share with their customers.