Looking forward to turkey for your Christmas dinner this week? RACHEL EATON reports on how one Cheshire farmer has set out to make his flock's final days a relaxing experience.

Turkeys have been shaking their tail feathers to a new relaxation CD issued by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) to stop them getting in a flap this Christmas.

In fact they're feeling positively laid back since farmer Sally Hawkins began playing them relaxing music.

The special CD includes the Top Ten Turkey hits featuring tracks such as Happy Turkeys, Trotting horses and Whale songs.

Sally runs a farm on Heath Road, Childer Thornton. Her turkeys are bred and produced for the Christmas market, using traditional farming methods.

The CD has been produced by the NFU as part of an experiment after consultation with animal behaviour experts from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.

It includes farmers involved in the NFU's Turkey Hotline to put shoppers in touch with their nearest farm selling fresh turkeys for Christmas.

The Turkey Top 10 contains a range of tracks aimed at having a positive calming influence on the birds. They are:

Wind chimes

Happy turkeys

Gregorian chanting

Dawn chorus

Sounds of the forest

Sounds of the seaside

Wind on the moors

Trotting horses

Farmyard sounds

Whale sounds

NFU turkey spokesman Mike Bailey said: 'It is well known that a background of constant sound calms birds, probably because it drowns out unexpected noise.'

Sally Hawkins agrees that playing music to relax the birds is nothing new. They have been using the technique for a while to get their breeding birds in the mood and to stop them getting distracted by outside noise.

But its the first time they have tried it on their Christmas turkeys.

'When you have a relaxed turkey, they have a scratch around and generally do what turkeys like to,' explained Sally.

'They're not all huddled in a corner, not running around. They're just relaxed and happy and they make the noises, the happy noises, rather than a warning signal which they'll do if something unusual is around.

'Sometimes when they are out in the yard if a large bird flies over one will give a call and they will all freeze until it has passed, the last thing we want is them all standing in corner trying to run away.

'Because of the way we raise them we like to think they are always happy, it gets them used to having noise and blocks aircraft noise or foxes.

'The better conditions you keep them in, the calmer they are, the less stress they get. You don't get stress bruising and them scrabbling about, everything is much more relaxed. And they get used to human contact.'

The relaxation tapes compliment the way in which Sally's turkeys are farmed. Traditional Wirral Turkeys have been producing turkeys since 1978.

They use traditional methods, allowing the birds to mature naturally without pushing them, unlike some commercial companies. They are free range and have plenty of barn space as well as an outside range.

'They are produced for the traditional market and not factory farmed, it is all part of the traditional way of doing it,' added Sally. 'They are all grown for the quality of meat and the quality to look at.

'Our customers come back every year, that's the best form of advertising, once someone has tried it they come back the next year and tell their friends.'

Despite using music in the past to relax breeding birds Sally was a bit sceptical when she first received the CD.

'It might be quite jovial but there is a questionnaire at the end of it your are expected to complete to see whether of not it has helped so there is a serious side and the answers will be studied to see the effects.'

As far as their favourite track goes, Sally isn't so sure.

'I'm not sure they have a preference or one track they like the most, anything that makes the turkey's used to hearing things so they don't get startled by outside noise.

'They don't like too much noise, so no heavy rock or anything.'