Hayter’s Farms: A local legacy of nearly 80 years

The Hayter family of Hayter’s Farms in Dashwood has been growing turkeys for generations, expanding to supply stores across Canada.

By Dan Rolph

The Hayter name is one most in the region will recognize, but Canadians from coast to coast are now learning it as they find their turkey products in their grocery stores.

Founded in 1948 by Harry and Frieda Hayter, the turkey farm based in Dashwood has remained in the family’s hands ever since, with their son, Tom, serving as president of Hayter’s Turkey Farms, while their daughter, Joanne Maguire, is president of Hayter’s Turkey Products.

The family’s roots in the land they continue to operate on run deep, with Harry having been born on that very farm. For years, the 120-acre property was used for mixed farming, but things changed when a neighbour put another idea into Harry’s mind.

“It was a fluke thing that a neighbour lady decided to offer my dad some turkeys,” said Maguire. “She felt that he would be good at doing turkeys.”

Starting with a small flock of about 300 turkeys, Maguire said the first years of turkey farming proved to be challenging for her father.

“He didn’t do very well the first time, but he kept at it,” she said. “He enjoyed the turkeys.”

It wasn’t just a fondness for turkeys that led to Harry’s decision to grow his flock.

According to Maguire, her father found that the turkey manure, which is high in nitrogen, was an excellent fertilizer on the land that was poor at that time.

“That’s why he kept going with the turkeys,” she said. “It was good for the land.”

Since those humble beginnings, the Hayter family has expanded their farm into an operation that grows as many as 70,000 turkeys at a given time. But the road to such growth was not one without challenges along the way.

For the first decades, the farm was what today is considered a “free-range” turkey farm, but when heat stroke saw them lose a flock in 1971, the operation moved indoors.

“After that, we started building our barns for them,” said Maguire. “You can regulate a lot better with fans, they’re cleaner and they’re protected from predators.”

For many years, the Hayters sold their whole turkeys locally to communities such as Goderich and Exeter, but substantial change came in 1984 when they built a provincial processing plant, the same year they opened their first retail store in Dashwood.

With the processing plant operational, they began selling not only whole turkeys, but various turkey products—a practice that has continued to grow into the expansive selection that includes turkey bacon, sausages, turkey burgers and more.

“Something we always strived for over the years was that everybody would have the opportunity to eat turkey once a week,” said Maguire. “Not just Christmas and Thanksgiving.”

Change came again for the Hayters when their processing plant went federal in 1990, which Hayter’s Turkey Products vice-president Elaine Hayter said has only improved their products.

“You have to be more attentive to how you’re running your operation,” she said. “But then it also instills a better product in the end, too.”

As for their most popular products?

Hayter said it can be difficult to say what’s getting the most attention from customers as the popularity of products changes depending on the season.

“During the barbecue season people gravitate to our turkey steaks and fillets and our turkey burgers,” she said. “During the cold season, we’ve also provided our customers with oven-ready products like turkey lasagna, shepherds pie and chilli.”

However, Hayter said their ground turkey has continued to be a highly sought-after product.

“They use it for everything,” she said.

Today, turkey products from Hayter’s in Dashwood can be found in grocery stores across Canada—especially after they entered a partnership with Sobeys several years ago.

With access to more markets in Canada, the Dashwood operation is in the process of expanding this year for the tenth time.

Hayter said the expansion will improve the operation’s processing, as well as add lunchroom space for their more than 150 employees, human resources space and more.

“This has been probably one of our largest expansions we’ve done at one time,” she said. “It’s actually going to be multi-purpose addition.

“It will be multi-faceted. It’s going to take a while to get exactly where we want.”

What started as a small farm may have extended its reach across Canada, but despite that growth, Maguire said it’s important that the business remains in family hands. She said the emphasis on remaining in the family goes back to her father.

“He was very family-oriented and church-oriented.” said Maguire. “We all had our jobs growing up, and it just instilled that small town farm pride.”

Now with a third generation of the family in roles spread throughout the farm, the Hayters seem set to continue their legacy of a family owned and operated farm for years to come.