When the increase was happening, the turkey board said a number of small-scale Mennonite farmers were buying quota.
The Ontario increase was unique in Canada where the national numbers have steadily declined from 603 in 1984 to 522 last year.
Production has increased from 40,824,000 kilograms in Ontario in 1974 to 60,284,000 for 2019-20 in Ontario and from 93,469,000 nationally to 146,606,000 .
Peak production was in 2015-16 when Ontario’s allocation was 62,341,000 kilograms and the national allocation was 156,601,000.
This year there has been a trend to smaller-sized turkeys for celebrations such as Thanksgiving, probably because group get-togethers are limited by COVID-19 protocols.
