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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1997)
Local farms tend to Thanksgiving TURKEY from page 1 ket’s demand. For example, the Japanese market calls for 8-pound turkeys, he said. Usually, the farm produces hens weighing about 15 pounds, he said. Turkey tactics The biggest trick in turkey farming is keeping the turkeys alive before they are ready to be slaughtered. Without proper conditions, turkeys will smoth er or tear each other apart. The farm at Goehner produces about 600,000 turkeys every year, said Scott Felber. He now is president of the business that his father, Jerry Felber, founded. Most Nebraska-grown turkeys began life in one of three hatcheries in Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota, Weeks said. From there, they travel to Nebraska farms such as the Goehner plant. When the 36,000 birds arrive at Felber’s farm as hatchlings, workers chase them in a brooder house where groups of 800 turkeys squeeze into large cardboard cylinders and huddle around a stove for about five days, Scott Felber said. “They like it really hot in there,” he said. Temperatures remain at 95 degrees to keep the turkeys from smothering each other. “If they get a little cool, they want to pile up, and they’ll die,” Scott Felber said. Workers slowly let the turkeys out of the cylinders, and by the week’s end, the turkeys have a whole building to roam, Scott Felber said. After a five week stay, the turkeys are moved into three grow houses that hold about 11,000 turkeys each. The farmers also protect turkeys from each other by disarming them. Jerry Felber said workers trimmed the turkeys’ beaks and toes slightly before they entered the grow houses so they wouldn’t damage each other by pecking or scratching. As the employees herded the turkeys toward the truck Wednesday, he picked up a hen and pointed to a beak that had almost grown back to a sharp point. “If you don’t disarm this hen, she’s lethal,” he said. In the grow houses, feed and water lines, tripped by electronic sensors, fill round containers around the building. The feed mixture is similar to hog feed, Scott Felber said, containing mostly com and soybean meal. He said it usually takes 35 pounds of feed to make each turkey full grown. That may seem like a lot of stuffing for a 15- to 16-pound bird. Jerry Felber said the birds have high metabolism: They eat during the day and risk losing weight at night. “They go to bed with the sun,” he said. That makes feeding them a bit of a problem. After three hours without food, turkeys start losing weight, he said. To make sure the birds keep gobbling up feed, he tricks them. A timer turns on the grow house lights from 10 p.m. to midnight and from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., which simulates daylight and causes the birds to eat. Family business Jerry Felber said he left a 29-year career working with computers for State Farm Insurance to take up turkeys. He said he spent about $ 1 mil lion and nearly lost it all before the market turned around. But he stuck with the business once he started: “I said, ‘We’re only going to do this, and we’re going to. do it right.’” He said he grew tired of dealing with the lawyers and pathologists involved in turkey growing, so now his son does that part. But Jerry Felber still lives on the turkey farm and helps with the hands-on work, which was a relief from dealing with business and trans actions that he couldn’t actually touch. “If we can see it and kick it, I take care of that,” he said as he tapped his work boots against the wall of the con finement. So how did he make the switch from bytes to birds? “I was really trained for this because my job was detail - absolute, total detail. And that’s what it takes for this,” Jerry Felber said. “This is my ballpark.” C^tymnyai yes} yOVl mi» OF ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDING RINGS, AND PASSIONATE SERVICE. PACKAGE, CALL L800.642.GIFT • - rv \' ■ .. , . ... ' ‘ ■ - *>< . . • - •- . -. ... . BORSMEIMS. A Berkshire Hathaway Company Regency Court, 120 Regency Parkway, Omaha (402)391-0400 (800) 642-GIFT ASUN looks to construct activities for King holiday By Brad Davis Assignment Reporter Senators voted to form an ad hoc committee that would research ways to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 1998 at Wednesday’s ASUN meeting in the Nebraska Union. Senate Bill No. 16, which passed unanimously, gives tho ad hoc committee authority to organize “constructive activities and events designated to increase awareness of diversity and culture.” Speaker of the Senate Viet Hoang said a “diverse” group of stu dents would be appointed to the committee, which he said would announce activities planned to honor the King holiday sometime before or after winter break. Although the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska plans to honor the King holiday this January, they will have to schedule activities around classes. In 1999, if ASUN has its way, UNL will not hold classes on King’s birthday with the passage of the pro posal being considered by University of Nebraska Calendar Committee that would make King’s birthday an official university holiday. Two weeks ago, the Academic Senate voted down a proposal that would have shown their support for a King holiday. One day after the Academic Senate’s vote, ASUN unanimously passed a proposal voic ing their support for the King holiday. Both the student and faculty opin ion was presented to the calendar committee meeting Monday. ASUN also presented 500 surveys, in which 90 percent of students supported the King holiday and a fall break, which is also being considered. i---— ASUN President Curt Ruwe said the senate would continue to gather student opinion to present to the committee, which he said “went back to the drawing table” to exam ine the King holiday, the fall break and a proposal to move spring break one week earlier. Ruwe said the calendar commit tee would reach a decision regarding the holidays by Christmas. First Vice President Amy Rager and Second Vice President Malcom Kass represented UNL at the Big 12 Student Government Conference in Boulder, Colo., last week. Kass said he wanted senators to help him research voting over the Internet for future ASUN elections. He said the University of Missouri Columbia recently implemented “online voting,” and increased their voting participation threefold. He said he wanted to research the reliability and safety of online voting. In other ASUN news: ■ Matt Bennett, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity apologized to ASUN and “accepted responsibility” for three SAE pledges who stole lumber from a construction site earlier in the semester to build a homecoming float. Bennett said the fraternity did not condone the theft, but “dealt with the parties involved.” The fra ternity was disqualified from home coming float competition. ■ Senate Bill No. 15 unani mously passed. The bill recognized the American String Teachers Association student chapter as an official student organization. The group promotes music education. Chris Linder Finance College of Business Administration senator; - of the Special Topics Committee. - Contact information: Call or visit the ASUN office in the Nebraska Union to speak with Linder about student concerns. The office phone number is (402) 472-258f Other involvement: Student assistant in Schramm Residence Hall, calling campaign coordinator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Admissions, teaching assistant for a University Foundations class, Campus Recreation Center Advisory Council, member of the Nebraska Human Resources Institute. Why ASUN is important: Linder said ASUN was important because it is “the students’ voice.’ “It’s the link between students and the administration,’ Under said. She said ASUN made important decisions that affect students' such as the allocation of student fees, “ft’s a major part of campus and most students don't even realize it,' she said. Responsibilities in ASUN: As Special Topics Committee chairwoman, Linder said her committee had to review the constitutions of ail student organizations. Any new student organization that wishes to become official must be approved by Linder’s committee before it is voted on by the senate. - ! Current ASUN prefects: Linder’s committee reviewsthe constitutions of student organizations, and any amendments to them. She said al constitutions must contain some essential items. Biggest challenge facing UNL: Linder said it was most important for UNL to work toward *buikfing a strong community where aB students feel welcome and safe." She said the community should include people of ail ethnic backgrounds. WeVe made a lot of strides in reaching out to student organizations this year," Linder said.-Senators do a great job of going to student organizations for input." She said the Student Impact Team, which was introduced this semester, allowed “a lot more students to get involved and give back to the community." Linder said the communication among student organizations has been better this year thm it has in the past This year, a lot of student organizations are working together.” Man dies in bicycle/car accident From staff reports A late afternoon bike/car accident ended with a man dead Tuesday. Lincoln Police Capt. Allen Soukup said Todd E. Behrend, 35, 1648 W. S St., was riding his bike southbound on Northwest 14th Street at 4:39 p.m. when he was struck by a westbound pickup truck on West O Street. ' Paramedics on the scene were performing cardiopulmonary resus citation on the man before he was taken to Lincoln General Hospital with head injuries. He was pro nounced dead at ;the hospital. Soukup said the man driving the pickup had not been arrested and the investigation was continuing. Traffic on West O Street snarled in the rush-hour push, with cars backed up more than a half mile op either side of the intersection.