Jaindl Family Farms
By Kathryn Finegan Clark
David M. Jaindl, who heads his third-generation family business, takes only a few seconds to decide what’s most exciting about his work.
He smiles. “It’s Thanksgiving Day–every year. That’s what all our work, all year long–every single day, every effort we make–is focused on,” says the owner of Jaindl Family Farms in Orefield. “It’s exciting to see it all come together.”
For the past 40 years, a Jaindl Grand Champion Brand turkey has been selected by the National Turkey Federation to be sent to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner for the First Family and guests.
And it does all come together, with the help of many family members including his sisters, Alice and Cathy and his brother John and 100 employees, just in time for the annual family feast in homes large and small across America. In many of those houses, the name Jaindl is almost synonymous with turkey, and that includes the White House.
For the past 40 years, a Jaindl Grand Champion Brand turkey has been selected by the National Turkey Federation to be sent to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner for the First Family and guests.
Jaindl is the Lehigh Valley’s largest independent agricultural operation taking root in the early 1930s when John L. Jaindl, David’s grandfather, bought five young turkeys for one dollar each. The business has grown steadily during its nearly 80 years–and more recently has expanded its product lines and continues implementing new innovate business practices.
David’s father, Fred, started helping his father with the turkeys when he was six years old. After World War II service, Fred found himself back at a business that was producing 2,500 turkeys a year and farming 60 acres.
It was Fred, a man way ahead of the times, who developed the Grand Champion Brand by carefully selecting toms and hens to produce a breed that offered more white meat than other turkeys. These extra lean turkeys have 55 percent less fat, 25 percent fewer calories, and contain neither basting nor artificial ingredients. The Grand Champion won its first of many blue ribbons in 1954.
In 1965, Jaindl Farms, under Fred’s leadership, was raising and marketing 200,000 turkeys each year and farming 500 acres. He enlarged both flock and farm.
David was named general manager in 1980 and bought the farm in 2005. The farm now produces about 750,000 turkeys a year. All are fed farm fresh feed from grains grown on 12,000 acres of prime farmland owned by the Jaindl family which are spread across Lehigh, Northampton, Berks and Schuylkill counties.
Jaindl Family Farms is the largest independently owned and fully integrated turkey business in the world. From beginning to end, Jaindl has full control of breeding, hatching, growing, processing and marketing. The Jaindl crops, corn, wheat and soybeans are ground into fresh feed at the farm’s mill which produces about 1,800 tons of turkey feed a week.
Jaindl is an extraordinarily self-sufficient operation, processing, packaging and shipping to markets in 20 states in company-owned refrigerated trucks.
The company is on the cutting edge of environmental issues as well and has “gone green” with its soybean protein and bio-fuel plant. It converts whole soybeans grown on the farm into feed protein for the turkeys and also produces an environmentally friendly bio-fuel which is used to heat the farm buildings and is blended to run in their farm equipment.
Richard Gildner, who now is general manager, has worked at Jaindl for 45 years. Jaindl is proud that his fulltime employees average over 15 years of experience with the company.
Companies under the umbrella of Jaindl Family Farms include Jaindl Turkey Sales, the sales and marketing arm that wholesales and retails the turkeys; Schantz Orchards, which produces more than 65,000 bushels of apples, cherries, peaches and plums each year, and Jaindl Land Co., which develops industrial, commercial and residential projects throughout Lehigh and Northampton counties and manages Jaindl’s own land and Jaindl Realty.
The diversified and thriving company also is committed to the Lehigh Valley community and has been cited by the Pennsylvania Association of Regional Food Banks for its service. Jaindl donates holiday turkeys to local food banks, and the Jaindl Foundation has made major contributions to area hospitals and schools. It’s a caring company–committed to a quality product, workers and the community. And the Jaindl family still honors the farms beginnings.
Kathryn Finegan Clark is a National Press Club award winner and former senior editor for a national business magazine.
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