Kelly Family Starts Breeding Bronze Turkeys

In 1984, we began building the bronze turkey breeding programme that would become KellyBronze. The idea had emerged the previous year, when Paul Kelly was studying poultry science in Scotland. Travelling home with his father, Derek, Paul suggested that the family differentiate its business from the increasingly price-driven market for mass-produced white turkeys by returning to the traditional bronze bird. Derek subsequently travelled around Britain acquiring remaining flocks of pure bronze turkeys to establish breeding stock. At the time, bronze birds had been largely displaced commercially by faster-growing, white-feathered breeds. An independent poultry-industry account also records that Derek and Mollie Kelly collected remaining bronze breeding stock in the early 1980s, preserving the genetic base from which KellyBronze was developed. The decision gave our family a distinct direction at a difficult time for independent turkey producers. Rather than competing primarily on price, we concentrated on developing the bronze bird and its eating qualities. Commercial success was not immediate, but 1984 established the breeding programme and the KellyBronze name around which the business subsequently developed.