Family Turkey Farm Puts Gobblers on First Family Tables Since 1959

David Jaindl, co-owner of Jaindal Farms, checks on one of the 219 buildings housing 4,000
AP/Rick Smith
Penny Starr

President Donald Trump may have pardoned two turkeys at the White House this week, but two more birds will be served up for the first family courtesy of David Jaindl (pictured), a Pennsylvania farmer who has been providing the Thanksgiving bird to the White House residents since 1959.

Some of those U.S. presidents have expressed thanks, including Ronald Reagan, both Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who sent him a photograph of the carving ceremony.

This year, the Trump family will get two Jaindl gobblers for holiday feasts.

Jaindl, 61, is the third generation of his family to operate Jaindl Farms LLC, a turkey farm started by his grandfather 83 years ago in Orefield, Pennsylvania, and run today with the help of his siblings and all five of his children.

“It’s extremely hard work,” Jaindl told Breitbart News in a brief phone call on one of the busiest weeks of the year.

By year’s end, 825,000 of his birds will be bought by American families.

Jaindl told Breitbart News that the White House tradition started after his grandfather kept winning the annual turkey competition held by the National Turkey Federation. It was when Grandpa decided to patent the Grand Champion brand turkey that he was asked to send one to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Today, the 12,000-acre farm with an American flag flying overhead, is also where local folks come to get their Thanksgiving turkey.

“It’s tradition for all Americans, and I think it’s to share with your family and being together,” Olympia Betcu, who came to pick up her turkey at the farm, told CBS Philly.

Turkey trivia

•Sex: 2,000 to 2,500 tom turkeys inseminate 20,000 to 25,000 hen turkeys, with each hen inseminated once every seven days.

•Birth: The hens lay a total of 14,000 eggs a day, producing 32 poults per hen.

•Turkey home: 2.5 million square feet in 219 barns with some feed grown on Jaindl’s 160-grain farms.

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