The Sweetgrass Cross Turkey

     In 1996 a few tri-colored birds appeared out of a heritage bronze flock in Big Timber, MT, at Sweetgrass Farms. These birds had a heavily marked royal palm pattern with chestnut red. The name Sweetgrass was put on this strain of tricolors.

     The Sweetgrass genotype is (b'b' cgcg) Black winged bronze based with gray.  They breed 100% true to color/pattern.

     This strain was developed from the Sweetgrass Farms' line in Big Timber, MT. This new strain has a heritage turkey body style, they are not a broad-breasted type like the ones developed at Sweetgrass Farms. As with all the broad-breasted type birds you run into many other problems too like the need for artificial insemination and also health problems due to the massive body structure which leads to leg and heart problems .

     They have selectively bred this line down to a much trimmer body type which can breed naturally and are also very hardy.

     Old toms weigh around 33-36 pounds and hens around 18-20 lb

     In Belgium, this color pattern has existed for hundreds of years and it is known as the Yellow-shouldered Ronquière. A clear example of one of these turkeys appears in this old painting, by the Flemish master Joachim Beuckelaars, from 1566!