Later this month, ovens, grills, deep fryers, and smokers will all be fired up to cook delicious Thanksgiving turkeys in many different ways. There are a couple of Ohio turkeys, however, that have a November destination quite different from the rest of their counterparts — a presidential pardon at the White House.

Each year the honor of raising and presenting the National Thanksgiving Turkey goes to the chairman of the National Turkey Federation. This year’s chairman is Gary Cooper, an owner and the COO of Cooper Farms, a family-owned turkey, pork and egg company in western Ohio. The Coopers have worked with a special flock of turkeys that hatched in July in anticipation of a trip to meet President Barack Obama this month.

The tradition of the presentation of the National Thanksgiving Turkey dates back to 1873 when Ulysses S. Grant was president. It wasn’t until 1989 however, that President George H.W. Bush began the official presidential pardon for turkeys. President Bush sent the turkey on his way to Frying Pan Park in Herndon, Virginia, and with that, a new tradition was born.

The 2014 trip will be the Cooper family’s second visit to the White House with turkeys in tow.

“In the late 1990s my brother was the chairman of the National Turkey Federation when President Clinton was in the White House. So we raised the presidential turkeys then as well,” Cooper said. “That is the only other year that the turkeys have been from Ohio that I know of.”

Knowing the attention this would generate, the Coopers had to devise a plan to allow access to visitors interested in seeing the soon-to-be-famous turkeys while protecting their other birds with proper biosecurity measures.

“We have so much biosecurity for the farm that we cannot allow visitors so we actually built a special small barn on my son’s property down in Mercer County. We built that in May and June, and July 7 we placed 65 poults in the building,” Cooper said. “We have our commercial turkeys and also some heritage turkeys including blueslates, black Spanish and some bronze turkeys that resemble a wild turkey. That is a bit different for us and it has been kind of fun. Of those birds, I am only taking two of the best white tom turkeys to the White House this month.”

The special “presidential” flock of turkeys is being raised much like any other Cooper turkeys, just on a smaller scale.

“We are using the same feed, same feeders, same waterers, same building set up — it is just on a much smaller scale than what we normally do,” he said. “We normally raise approximately 6,000 white toms in a turkey building at a time and instead we are raising 60.”

The small building has played host to many visitors this summer that have gotten the chance to learn about turkey production, including the specialized breeding that has taken place to produce those delicious Thanksgiving birds.

“The commercial birds over the years have been bred like racehorses to have a lot more production speed to them and to produce more edible meat protein per pound of the turkey. The heritage breeds are more the way turkeys used to be,” Cooper said. “They are much thinner and agile and they can fly up onto just about anything to roost. The commercial turkeys don’t fly that well because they are too heavy.”

Cooper turkeys get their start at specialized breeding farms.

“We have turkey breeding farms where we artificially inseminate the breeding hens. They are laying about an egg every other day. We get about 95% fertility and 85% hatch. It takes about 28 days to set a turkey egg to hatch. Once they are hatched they are delivered within 24 hours to our 200 family turkey farmers who raise them for us,” Cooper said. “It takes about 20 weeks normally to get them to around 45 pounds. Our normal commercial toms convert feed at 2.5 to 2.6 pounds of feed for every pound of weight they put on. Then they go to our processing plant in St. Henry and from there they go to our other processing plant in Van Wert where were further process the turkey into cooked turkey products for many different companies.”

Most of the Cooper’s presidential flock will be processed locally for Thanksgiving — all, in fact, but the very best. Those choice turkeys will make the 8.5-hour drive with Cole Cooper and his brother, Luke. The turkeys will be carefully washed and meticulously cared for to keep the white feathers looking good for the cameras.

“We are taking the best of the turkeys we raised the Monday before Thanksgiving. They are going to stay in the Willard Hotel. Then, on Tuesday, we have media day and that is when all of the different newspapers and networks come and interview us and see the turkeys,” Cooper said. “On Wednesday, the plan is that sometime between 9 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, the President will summon us to the White House with the turkeys. Then he will get to see the turkeys and he pardons them and all of that.

“To get in the White House, everyone must have background checks. They have to make sure everything is on the up and up every year. Only so many people can go and they have some restrictions. We are all looking forward to it. It should be quite fun. My son Cole and our whole group will be going. If it is a nice day it will be in the Rose Garden. If it is rainy or snowy, we will be under a portico. The President gets to pet the turkey or whatever he wants to do. In the last couple of years he has brought his daughters out to see them as well.”

While the experience has thus far been enjoyable, Cooper also hopes that it will serve to educate and inform people about turkey production and promote more turkey consumption. Things are finally looking up for turkey producers after some lean years, but it is important to build demand for the future, he said.

“We have really strong demand now for the turkey and the swine business. All of the meat proteins are in high demand. The improving economy has helped that. This year our turkey prices and pork prices have all hit almost record highs and our feed costs have finally come down. About three years ago we paid as much as $8.50 per bushel and now it is closer to $3.50,” Cooper said. “As chairman of the National Turkey Federation, one of my main goals has been to put together a group of 35 industry senior leaders in the turkey processing business as well as the allied suppliers. We have an industry challenge now that we call 20 X 2020. Right now the American consumer eats about 16 pounds of turkey per person per year and it has been that way for a while. We are working to increase that with strategic projects to 20 pounds per person per year by the year 2020. That is a pretty exciting project.

“Farmers are really good at producing a lot of product. That is why we are working to improve the demand for turkey. It is something we have to plan for. We are very good at animal husbandry and at being cost effective producers, so when margins get tighter, we’ll still be OK with strong demand.”

So, with that in mind, Cooper has a simple and clear message for his upcoming visit with the President of the United States: “I want to encourage the President to get his friends and family to enjoy all of the turkey they can. We need everybody in America to eat more turkey.”