How a Northfield farmer picks which of his turkeys to have pardoned at White House

As a turkey farmer in Northfield who raises about 150,000 birds every year, John Zimmerman usually doesn’t give much thought to any particular turkey, even a Thanksgiving turkey.

But this year is different.

That’s because Zimmerman had to choose which turkey travels to the White House to meet President Joe Biden to receive an expected presidential pardon on Monday. Zimmerman is serving as chair of the National Turkey Federation this year and that group’s head picks the honorary bird. Hence, Zimmerman’s laser-like focus on a single turkey.

Actually, it’s two turkeys. There’s the No. 1 turkey and a backup turkey, just in case.

The competition began months ago on his farm when Zimmerman, his 9-year-old son Grant, and several neighbors began examining 44 male turkeys from his flock for the possible honor.

“Male turkeys are naturally a little more aggressive,” Zimmerman said. “They’re the ones that strut up and want to show off because they’re obviously looking for a mate.”

When examining the candidates for top turkey, Zimmerman wanted a pretty bird, but also a mellow bird, one that isn’t afraid of humans.

“We’re looking for the calmest birds out there, ones that are not scared of people,” he said.

Also important: a bird that is comfortable standing on an elevated platform, because, of course, that’s what he’ll have to do on the White House lawn in front of a stranger in a suit (even if that stranger is the president), surrounded by photographers, reporters, Secret Service agents and other hangers-on during a staged media event on the Monday before Thanksgiving.

“Birds that can stand up there nice and calm naturally have a leg up in the competition,” he said.

The annual president-pardons-a-turkey tradition started in 1989 when President George H.W. Bush used the word “pardon” in a White House ceremony, Zimmerman said. Before that, turkey producers gave the president a bird to eat, which some presidents did on the big day.

Past chairs of the National Turkey Federation advised Zimmerman that choosing the pardoning turkey would be easy. You’ll know, they said. But Zimmerman thought otherwise. Once he’d narrowed the candidates to the top dozen candidates, he found it more difficult to narrow the field. So he started to get picky.

“The bird looks at you wrong, it’s out,” he said. “One feather out of place, it’s out.”

Of course, Zimmerman’s family and friends had opinions. During final deliberations, people circled the turkeys, using laser pointers to point out flaws.

“Somebody would say the feather on the left is a little out of place. Or he looks a little meaner than the other ones,” he said. “It’s an interesting process and not something you normally do with the birds that are destined to be consumed.”

Zimmerman said a fellow turkey-industry professional, Peter Gruhl, will drive the two turkeys in a minivan to Washington, D.C., on Friday.

“They’re not in kennels or coops or anything, they’re just free roaming in the back,” Zimmerman said.

But don’t get the idea the turkeys will be trotting around truck stops on the trip east.

“He’s a turkey whisperer. He knows what they need. He’s been around turkeys his entire life. If he needs to stop and do something to make them more comfortable, he will do that.”

After Monday’s event at the White House, Gruhl will take the turkeys to Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretative center in Waseca, where visitors can take a gander at them.

Correction: An earlier version of this story got the sex of the turkeys wrong. The turkeys are male, not female.

MPR News freelance photographer Tim Evans contributed to this story.

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