Pardon our turkey, Minnesota farmer says

MINNEAPOLIS — What makes a good presidential turkey? Showmanship. A readiness to strut his stuff and gobble on command, yet enough restraint to stay on a table for the big photo op.

So say a Minnesota turkey farmer and 4-H kids who raised the turkey that will go to the White House for an official pardon from President Donald Trump today. It’s the 70th anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey tradition.

The event dates from 1947, when the National Turkey Federation became the official supplier and presented a 47-pound gobbler to President Harry Truman. In those days the turkeys were destined for dinner; formal pardons began with President George H.W. Bush in 1989.

The perk of taking presidential turkeys to Washington goes to the chairman of the National Turkey Federation. This year that’s Carl Wittenburg, from Alexandria, Minnesota.

Wittenburg recruited five Douglas County 4-H members to help. They’re all going to the White House to help oversee the bird.

The Wittenburgs grow more than 100,000 turkeys annually for Northern Pride Cooperative in Wyndmere, North Dakota, but they raised the presidential flock on their smaller hobby farm near Alexandria. The birds hatched in late June. The star and an understudy who would step in if there’s a last-minute problem will be around 47 and 37 pounds, respectively, by pardoning time.

The team selected the two best birds from a flock of about 20. The birds got officially named Drumstick and Wishbone on Monday, and the White House opened a Twitter poll on which one Trump should pardon. They stayed at a hotel near the White House for the run-up to the big show.

The presidential birds will finish out their lives in leisure at Virginia Tech, joining the 2016 winners, Tater and Tot, at Gobbler’s Rest in Blacksburg. With luck, they might live another year or more. A few of their predecessors have hit the ripe old age of 2. Very few domestic turkeys live that long. The vast majority get sent to processing plants when they’re between 14 to 20 weeks old.

[HANNAH MACINNIS/WHITE HOUSE] Two turkeys set to be pardoned today by President Donald Trump are shown in their Washington hotel room Sunday, where they’ve stayed since being brought to Washington.