Oregon Turkey Industry Flies Coop

PORTLAND - Nearly all Oregon growers have decided the turkey business is for the birds.

An industry already hurting because of depressed prices and overproduction nationwide finally succumbed after the 1991 Norbest turkey recall.

"There are no turkeys being raised anywhere we're aware of," said Tony Bernards, president of the Oregon Turkey Growers board of directors and co-owner of Bernards Brothers Farm Inc. of Dayton, Columbia County.

A handful of growers may sell a few birds to local stores, said Jim Hermes, extension poultry specialist at Oregon State University.

However, the 23 Oregon and two southwestern Washington farmers who had been members of Oregon Turkey Growers, a 66-year-old cooperative, are no longer raising turkeys to be processed under the Norbest label at the co-op's West Salem plant. The turkey processing plant, the only one in Oregon and Washington, is for sale.

Paul Reed, director of marketing for Norbest Inc. in Midvale, Utah, said the company continued to supply Oregon consumers, as it has in years past, with turkeys from Norbest plants in Utah and Nebraska. Previously, Norbest brand turkeys grown in Oregon were mixed with out-of-state Norbest turkeys for sale locally, nationwide and overseas.

Supplies of turkeys are plentiful.

Prices also have been comparable to other years, said Rob Boley, a spokesman for Fred Meyer Inc. "Costs to us historically have been the same, whether they're out of one state or another." he said.

Most Oregon growers were diversified farmers and have replaced their turkey flocks by adding other crops or livestock.

One large farm, John W. Stoller Inc., also of Dayton, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization a year ago. It was later liquidated under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code.

It was the 1991 Norbest turkeys recall "that was really the beginning of the end," Hermes said.

That year, some customers complained that their Norbest turkeys smelled bad, and 70,000 - $2.4 million worth - were recalled. An estimated 70 turkeys were found to have been kept at improper temperatures after leaving the plant.

The cooperative's insurance company, Transamerica Insurance Co., said the growers did not have a policy that covered recalls, and it did not pay the group's claim. So the farmers absorbed a $1.4 million loss, and Norbest lost $1 million.

After that, Bernards said, most farmers, who had been earning only 2 or 3 cents a pound on their birds, couldn't afford to keep raising turkeys.

The Oregon Turkey Growers still hopes to collect on its insurance claim. Last year, it filed a $1.4 million suit in Polk County District Court against Transamerica, alleging the insurance company breached its contract.