Art Lankford is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of Butterball's six turkey processing facilities in Arkansas, Missouri and North Carolina.

On Thanksgiving, many consumers like to think of their turkey as coming straight from the farm. But the reality is more complicated – or automated.

Voters for The National Provisioner’s Plant of the Year award this year faced a serious challenge, as each of the nominees — all processing facilities visited for cover stories from June 2015 through May 2016 — made a very strong case for winning the annual award.

Last year was a good year for chicken, but not great compared with the above-average years of 2013 and 2014.

It has been a busy couple of years, but the gamble that Butterball LLC has taken to modify its operational approach appears to have paid off, spurred along by several headline-making acquisitions in recent years.

In mid-November, Andy Hanacek, editor-in-chief, visited Raeford, N.C., in order to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony and get an exclusive tour of the new Butterball further-processing plant there (which was also still under construction at presstime).