What is the sound of crickets if not the absence of turkeys? On Henry Miller’s turkey farm there isn’t much chirping by crickets, because those small bugs are being consumed by the many hungry birds roaming the large open area. Crickets are a nice treat for the turkeys, but their regular diet consists of more traditional farm feed.

“I grind all my own feed, corn and soybeans,” Henry Miller said. “I use a lot of oats and I have some wheat that I’m using this year, but my main ration would be corn and roasted soybeans. I still think the roasted soybeans are better than bean meal. The turkeys come out here and they’ve been eating bugs, we don’t have any problem with crickets. If they can find a cricket, they’ll eat it.”

Henry’s organic turkey farm (located in Kalona at 1012 Juniper Ave) started raising free range turkeys for market in the early 1990s. In the beginning he started with about 40 to 50 turkeys. He averaged around that many turkeys for years until he sold his cows in 2002. No more cows taking up space meant more room for turkeys, and the number of turkeys he could keep continued to increase over the years. This year Henry decided to take on the task of raising 500 turkeys.

“I used to start at 300 and then this year I decided to do an extra 200. So, normally we would sell around 250. I started at 500 but lost 40-some birds.  I’m thinking I’ll butcher around 450 this year,” Henry said.

The person who got Henry started in the organic field of work was Bob Braverman, an organic produce producer from Iowa City. Most of Henry’s turkey knowledge came from a job he had working for a farmer named Edward F. Miller.

“As a kid, we used to have turkeys on range, so I kind of knew about turkeys, but I didn’t really. I was always kind of a horse man,” Henry said. “I kind of got out of that since I don’t have any use for them. After I got married, I was working for another dairy farmer and a tornado went through and dissembled some of his buildings. So, I was looking for another job, then I started working for Edward F. Miller. I worked for Edward for three years and that’s where I learned to take care of turkeys.”

His wife, Ila Miller, oversees a catering business called HIM Hearth-N-Home Cooking. This catering business was established in 1985 and they offer catering services in Kalona and all surrounding areas. They cater any event regardless of size, from graduation parties to wedding receptions. The food they offer can range from home-style cooking to gourmet dishes. Even if people who want to use their services don’t have a suitable place to hold their event, this catering business has a banquet hall that can seat up to 60 people available for rent. Some of the food provided to the business is a collaborative effort between husband and wife. 

“I’m also selling some turkeys through them [HIM Hearth-N-Home Cooking],” Henry said. “They’re not a big seller, but I’m hoping it keeps getting bigger. They ordered 25 [turkeys] and they’re hoping to sell that many, and I told them if you sell more, let me know, I’ll have them available.”

To make it so these turkeys are raised organically, Henry gives the birds access to a large open space, only allows them to eat organic feed, and they are raised without hormones or steroids. He obtains his birds from a hatchery and when they arrive, they are only a day old. Raising them is a multiple-month process.

“It takes four months to raise turkeys. So, kind of my process is I like to start right after the Fourth of July and then we butcher the week before Thanksgiving. Then I can sell them as a fresh bird. So, they’re never frozen, they’re fresh when people come to pick them up. We take them all the way to Rock Falls, Illinois to get them processed now, because it’s about the only place we can go. And they’re USDA inspected and everything else, so then we can sell anywhere,” Henry said.

While Henry admits he does most of the work on the farm, he does receive help from his family.

“My daughter, she helps here and there. And then as far as the egg gathering, my wife and I usually do that, which works well. It only takes about an hour to do that, but she is so busy with catering now that sometimes I end up doing it myself,” Henry said.

A benefit of farming organically is that it helps the environment. Henry knows treating his land right will benefit him greatly in the end.

“There’s a lot to say about if you take care of your land, your land will take care of you, and that’s what I try to do,” Henry said about the organic nature of his farm. “I’ve been with Midwestern BioAG for 30 years and with that, Gary Zimmer, which is the one that started Midwestern BioAg, his idea was to balance the soil and your livestock would do better. So, that’s kind of my philosophy, that if I take care of the land, the land will take care of the livestock, and the livestock end up taking care of me. And pay for everything.”

Midwestern BioAg is a biological agriculture company. This company has almost a 40-year history of product and process innovation. Their company motto is better farming through better soil. They have two facilities in Iowa located in Washington and Monticello.

In November, nearly 50 million turkeys are eaten since they are the cornerstone food of the traditional dinner we all know as Thanksgiving. Around 88% of Americans incorporate turkey into their Thanksgiving dinner. The average American eats nearly 105 pounds of turkey a year, in the way of sandwiches, soups, and other various dishes. With the demand for turkey not going away any time soon, it would stand to reason Henry would continue to grow the size of his turkey farm, but he feels content with what he has now and just wants to continue honing his craft of raising turkeys.    

“If I can sell all 500 [turkeys] that’s pretty good. So, for me, I’m not going to go and get any bigger. I just want to do a better job selling what I got,” Henry said.