The NFU once again hosted a series of in person autumn seasonal poultry marketing meetings across England, providing members with an opportunity to network with other producers, ask questions and gain useful insights for their seasonal poultry enterprises.
It was great to see seasonal poultry producers in person at our 2025 marketing meetings. The meetings covered cost of production, feed and raw material insights, policy updates and a seasonal producer speaker sharing their story with the group.
We also took the opportunity to promote this year’s #BuyMyTurkey campaign, which returns on 5 December 2025. More details on how you can get involved with be available soon.
The best part about meeting in person is of course the opportunity to chat to other seasonal poultry producers.
Farming can be a lonely profession so it was great to see producers coming together to talk about the shared challenges and opportunities for the seasonal poultry sector.
The producer speakers are always a highlight of the evening, with farmers sharing insights into how they operate their seasonal poultry businesses and the tips and tricks of the trade they’ve learned over years (or decades) of experience.
Price changes
| Costs Components | 2024 | 2025 | % change y-on-y |
| Feed costs (a) | £16.00 | £14.99 | -6.3% |
| Poult | £5.65 | £6.19 | +9.6% |
| Brood | £0.70 | £0.79 | +12.9% |
| Farming costs (b) | £4.86 | £5.10 | +4.9% |
| Pluck (c) | £3.77 | £4.08 | +8.2% |
| EV (c) | £3.95 | £4.27 | +8.1% |
| Packaging costs (d) | £2.50 | £2.50 | 0% |
| Distribution costs | £1.16 | £1.18 | +1.7% |
| Overheads e) | £11.10 | £11.66 | +5% |
| Waste removal | £0.06 | £0.07 | +16.7% |
| Total Turkey | £49.75 | £50.83 | +2.2% |
Calculation variables
The NFU presented updated estimated costs of producing a 5.5kg turkey, which shows an increase in overall cost of production of 2.2% compared to 2024.
It is important to note that these are indicative costings only and these figures may vary significantly from business to business so it is essential that producers examine their own figures in detail.
The NFU calculations use August SPOT feed prices which are significantly lower than in 2024 due to good global stocks and expected harvests of wheat and soya.
Producers who purchased their feed earlier in the year may have paid significantly more for their rations and should consider this when calculating their own cost of production.
As the major variable cost, small changes in the feed price can have a big impact on the total cost of production – for example in the NFU model, if feed prices had stayed the same as last year the overall increase in cost of production for a 5.5kg turkey would rise to 4.2%.
Inflation and wage factors
Brood, poult and labour costs increased significantly compared to 2024, partly driven by inflation remaining relatively high at around 4%. Wages have also pushed up these costs, with the NLW (National Living Wage) increasing by 6.7%, on top of a 1.2% increase in employer National Insurance contributions in April 2025.
It’s also important that producers factor in the value of their own labour when calculating the total cost of production, as well as any additional costs of using agencies or the Seasonal Poultry Worker visa scheme.
Cautious optimism
Most producers who attended the meetings said they were continuing with similar numbers of birds as last year, and were cautiously optimistic about this year’s campaign. Many reported that butchers and farmgate customers had already been in contact to reserve their Christmas birds which is an encouraging start to the season.
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, and to Kelly Turkeys, ForFarmers and Massey Feeds for sponsoring the meetings. I wish everyone a successful 2025 marketing campaign.
