Ben Holgate meats the people who put Christmas dinner on the plates of county folk

Turkeys not only bring satisfied smiles to hungry Britons on Christmas Day, but also provide a reliable revenue stream for independent farmers.

Lutfi Radwan has gradually increased the number of Norfolk bronze heritage turkeys on Willowbrook Farm, at Hampton Gay, near Kidlington, to 150.

“We’re probably doing the same as last year,” said the former agricultural consultant. “We’re not chasing growth.”

Mr Radwan, 53, said that because the farm was run on organic principles, the current level of poultry is about right.

Willowbrook also has 150 Embden geese being fattened for Christmas.

In addition, the 45-acre farm has Costwold white chickens, which average about 100 per month.

When Mr Radwan and his wife Ruby, 51, set up their farm 14 years ago, they wanted to produce free-range animals that are healthy in life and healthy to eat, and to farm in an environmentally sustainable manner.

“As Muslims, we felt we respect nature and the creative force behind that, and we had to take that seriously,” he said.

The birds roam around the paddocks and eat grass and grain. The Radwans also have sheep.

“They’re getting natural exercise, so they’re developing a mixture of muscle and flesh, getting a better flavour,” he said.

One key difference between free-range animals and their factory-farmed brethren is a longer life span. Mr Radwan estimates his turkeys are reared for six months (compared to two months for those bred indoors), his chickens for 12 to 14 weeks (versus four weeks indoors), and his geese six months.

The Willowbrook farmer, who grew up in London, previously lectured on environmental sustainability and rural development in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in irrigation from Oxford.

The family sells most of its meat through farmers’ markets in South Oxfordshire, East Oxfordshire and Wolvercote. Next year, however, the Radwans plan to bring a butcher on-site for several days a week and sell directly to the public from a farm shop.

It is part of a wider revenue diversification strategy – including open days, school tours, a café and an ecologically-friendly camping site – designed to ensure the farm is financially viable for the wider family.

Two of Mr Radwans’ five children work full time at Willowbrook. “We need to look at how to make income to support the family.”

About 10 million turkeys are sold for Christmas consumption in the UK every year, according to the Financial Times.

Oxfordshire supplies 10,000 turkeys a year, as well as 3,500 geese, according to the National Farmers Union.

On those numbers tenant farmer Bill Homewood raises about 80 per cent of the county’s turkeys on Peachcroft Farm, near Abingdon.

Mr Homewood, 57, a third-generation turkey farmer, said: “We’re just under 8,000 turkeys and 2,000 geese. We’ve scaled it up over the last six or seven years and now we’re at a level we’re comfortable with.”

About two-thirds of the farm’s turkeys are the KellyBronze variety, and a third are the standard white-feathered variety.

He said that 95 per cent of his turkeys are sold for Christmas. “We rear for the Christmas market. Having said that, we sold a lot for Thanksgiving.”

Mr Homewood, who has been plucking turkeys for half a century, also raises his turkeys and Embden geese free range.

He thinks the free-range birds have “a slightly richer taste,” compared to their factory friends, and that goose, which is Britain’s real traditional Christmas poultry, is for “the more discerning customers”.

“The perception of goose as a meat is improving. Our goose would be similar to duck, but it’s more flavoursome, more tender.”

Turkeys, however, remain “our biggest enterprise on the farm by some way,” and about 70 per cent of Peach Croft’s annual turnover is generated at Christmas. (The 700-acre farm also derives income from about 600 acres of arable crops.) “Thirty years ago we’d have been doing 3,000 turkeys and just a few geese. If you get the product right, it’s a pretty known market because Christmas comes along every year. People will source something special for that Christmas Day lunch.”

Mr Homewood said he could reliably estimate, within five per cent, this year’s turkey sales based on last year’s sales to his 70 wholesalers, who provide most of the farm’s sales.

The birds are delivered about one week before Christmas, with the farm’s cash flow concentrated from mid-December to January.