TURKEYS IN DEMAND DESPITE PRICES

For less than 20 cents a pound, your family can feast on a Thanksgiving turkey. But the entire holiday meal could cost as much $40 if you buy it prepared.

The birds range in price from 12 to 19 cents per pound with an additional $50 purchase at area grocery stores. Otherwise, they cost up to 69 cents per pound.

Turkey sales are excellent at the Town and Country Supermarket in Jackson, said Jim Kincy, store manager.

"Everybody eats a bird," he said, adding that today will be the busiest shopping day for grocers.

Shoppers at Schnuck's stores have been buying turkeys for about two weeks. "People actually start shopping for turkeys the day the ad breaks," said store manager Dennis Marchi, adding that new shipments arrive each day.

Marchi said Schnucks is selling turkeys for less than it pays for the birds.

Kincy blames the summer weather for the rise in prices.

"The hot weather killed many of the birds, and prices will get higher yet before Christmas," he said.

For those people who don't want to spend the holiday checking the turkey in the oven, area restaurants and grocery delis offer a traditional holiday meal with all the trimmings.

Food Giant is selling a turkey and dressing meal (and all the extras) for $30. Buying the ingredients for a standard meal could run about $40, said Mark Lamont, assistant manager at Food Giant.

The store is selling turkeys averaging 15 pounds for 13 cents a pound with a $50 purchase.

Diners at Bessie's Restaurant and Cedar Street at the Drury Lodge can feast on a buffet for only $7.95. The meal includes turkey and dressing, ham, potatoes, and a variety of desserts.

Both restaurants are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

The turkeys on Jeannie David's farm in Patton don't have to worry about Thanksgiving dinner: They will eat -- not be eaten.

David won't be serving her turkeys for dinner although she will enjoy the traditional feast, complete with roast turkey.

"I don't cook the birds," she said. "They just hang around."

David bought five turkey chicks in the spring but only has been able to successfully raise three -- one male and two females.

"They are good birds," David said. "They are real personable. I can whistle and he gobbles. They have a good personality. It's too bad they aren't the national bird."

David has been raising turkeys on her farm for about two years but none of the eggs laid by her birds has hatched. She also raises ducks and chickens.

"One of the ducks hatched in an incubator and thought the turkey was its mother," she said. "It was so sweet."

In the spring, David bought the turkeys as chicks from Lance Green, owner of the Foxfire Country Farm Store in Patton.

The store sold about 150 turkey chicks in the spring but most of them are just being raised as barnyard pets, like David's. In 1994, 20.5 million turkeys were raised in Missouri.

"People usually buy 10 turkeys but with coyotes it usually weeds them down to four," Green said, adding that few people raise the animals strictly for food. "It's not real common in this county, people would rather eat other meat rather than turkey."