Stocking density in commercial turkey production directly determines the opportunity for movement, exploration, and normal social behaviour. Evidence-based space allowances significantly reduce leg disorders, feather pecking, and mortality while remaining commercially viable.
Turkeys in overcrowded sheds cannot perform normal locomotor exploration, social interaction, or dust bathing. Individually, the heaviest birds in dense flocks are unable to stand without difficulty, creating a welfare burden that worsens progressively through the production period. Welfare-centred producers adopt stocking density limits below 40 kg per square metre, provide structured enrichment objects and perches from early age, use slower-growing breeds where possible, and conduct twice-daily flock health monitoring with mortality recording as a welfare outcome metric. Consumer demand for higher-welfare turkey is growing and supports the commercial case for adoption.