Nebraska turkey facts for Thanksgiving

• Nebraska Turkey Growers Cooperative in Gibbon, Nebraska, the state’s only turkey processing plant, produces more than 55 million pounds of turkey a year.
• Nebraska’s 17 turkey growers, who are members of the Nebraska Turkey Growers Cooperative, raise approximately 4 million turkeys each year. The majority of these turkeys are packaged under the Norbest label.
• In 2007, 65 million pounds of turkey was processed from those 4 million turkeys.
• The Nebraska Turkey Growers Cooperative is currently exporting more product than ever before in national and international markets. Currently, seven out of every ten turkeys sold in Nebraska are exported out of state.
• The economic impacts of the commercial turkey production and processing industry in Nebraska have been calculated to be over $110 million.
• A $1 million expansion of the 60-year-old processing plant in Gibbon in 1998 was operating by March 1999. The expansion allows Norbest, Inc. to produce ready-to-serve products and to promote its label — Norbest-Nebraska Grown.
• Norbest donated cash and more than 50,000 pounds of turkey products during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The product was available at the competition venues, hospitality areas, and media centers during the 2002 Games.

To learn more about turkeys and statistics about the holiday, click here.