Profitable Poultry: Raising Birds on Pasture

	Page: 1 | 2 | 3 Determining the Right Alternative Poultry Production System
	Poultry System Options, cont. Salatin has since begun to work directly with others to pass along his experiences and ideas, holding field days and speaking frequently at conferences. With help from SARE and Heifer International, a nonprofit organization that promotes community development through sustainable livestock production, Salatin held workshops for limited-resource farmers interested in learning more about pastured poultry. “You walk away from three days with [Salatin] knowing everything from how to keep a chicken healthy to how to keep your customers happy,” said Rosa Shareef, a farmer from New Medinah, Miss., who attended one of the workshops in 1997. “He’s a wizard,” said Tom Delahanty, a former conventional chicken farmer in Wisconsin, who moved to Socorro, N.M., to raise pastured poultry. There, mild desert winters allow him to keep birds on pastures year-round; Salatin’s methods provided a jumping-off point from which he designed a field pen to fit his conditions. Before taking the plunge, consider... In penned systems, expect to move pens daily. Poultry operations are usually seasonal, unless producers build semi- permanent housing, see “Yarding". You may need to dig to find suppliers such as hatcheries and other contractors. Yet, those retailers will likely ship materials to you. Pastured birds are susceptible to weather-related stress and predation. Reliable processing may be hard to find; many farmers process on site. While some are concerned that pastured poultry might be exposed to avian influenza through migratory waterfowl, others claim that flocks and pasture managed with care to avoid parasites are at less risk than large confinement houses. David Bosle brought the Salatin model to his central Nebraska farm, using Salatin’s book “as a bible,” he said. A corn grower who had never raised livestock, he started with chickens on pasture almost by accident. When talking with friends, he mentioned that he was considering raising chickens. Soon, he had 100 orders over the phone before buying his first chick. “I thought, ‘OK, there’s something out there,’” he said. Years later, Bosle has 250 steady customers to whom he sells 2,400 chickens a year. The Label Rouge System. For people seeking ways to increase the profit potential of range poultry systems as a full-time enterprise, the new “Label Rouge” approach may hold promise. The “red label” system, popular in France since the mid-1960s, produces range poultry on a larger scale and takes advantage of direct marketing opportunities. In France, Label Rouge chickens have captured 30 percent of the poultry market. Different from conventional systems, Label Rouge enterprises offer independence, use lower densities of birds per housing unit, allow flock access to yards, discourage routine medication, and feature longer life spans – 12 weeks – for broilers and other meat birds to reach market weight. The longer life of the birds has become a chief marketing point, along with a flavor Label Rouge proponents claim is superior. “What affects taste is the genetics of the bird,” said Stevenson of Wisconsin’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. Because the Label Rouge bird is not a typical American Cornish Cross breed, because it lives longer and because, after processing, it is cooled through air chilling, people consistently notice a taste difference, he added. Air chilling after birds are dressed, rather than placing carcasses in chilled water, holds a number of advantages for producers as well as consumers, according to Dr. Randall Westgren, a University of Illinois professor of agribusiness management who has conducted research into the viability of establishing a Label Rouge marketing system. Air chilling discourages potential cross-contamination because carcasses are hung and chilled separately rather than lying in contact in a water bath, and flavor is not compromised by chlorine, typically added to chill water in poultry processing plants to kill bacteria and other microbes. While a farmer may not be able to produce as many of these flocks per season, charging considerably more for each bird boosts profits. French farmers who want to raise birds year-round provide substantial housing. Poultry specialists at the University of Illinois Agriculture Extension Service have looked into the feasibility of importing Label Rouge techniques to the United States. Some promising aspects of the Label Rouge model include: Potential for profit as a primary, rather than supplemental, enterprise A coordinated network of support services, from start-up services (hatchery, feed mill) to post-production (processor, distributor) Marketing strategies: playing up the "premium" product, humane treatment or birds' age Opportunities to cooperate with rather than compete against other producers Contact ATTRA, (800) 346-9140, for more information on Label Rouge, or go to http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/labelrouge.html Page: 1 | 2 | 3   Top