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On-Farm Processing, cont.
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Neighbors
of Nebraska farmer David Bosle help eviserate chickens at his mobile
processing unit. |
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“My family and I have worked out the best way for us to do
this, and we’ve got it down to a science,” he said.
The most important judges of the quality of his dressing operation,
Salatin said, are those who help him do the processing, and his
customers. “Our customers pick up their orders from a site
right next to where we do the processing, so they can see for themselves
how clean it is,” he said. “If they don’t like
what they see, they won’t come back.”
If he has a good work crew, David Bosle can butcher as many as
400 chickens a day using a mobile processing unit he purchased with
three other farmers. He processes three times a year.
Disposal of Solid Wastes. Salatin composts the
feathers, guts, heads, feet and blood of the broilers he processes.
He admits it takes some skill and experience, but says he is able
to manage his compost piles so that odors and pests aren’t
a problem, even at the height of summer.
Oregon farmer Robert Plamondon, who raises about 800 free-range
layers and 200 broilers outside the town of Blodgett, does the same,
sprinkling hydrated lime on his compost heap after each addition
to both reduce odors from the decaying organic matter and to repel
pests such as flies, raccoons, even other chickens. Both Salatin
and Plamondon use the compost to amend the soil in their garden
plots, as well as to help fertilize their pastures.
Other producers who live close to metropolitan areas with upscale
and ethnic restaurants can sell feet and heads to chefs who use
them to make soup stocks.
Cooperative Mobile Processors
To provide farmers with affordable alternatives to on-farm poultry
processing, groups around the country are bringing slaughtering
to the farm.
Twelve farm families in Michigan collaborated on a mobile processing
unit in a project partially supported by SARE. The unit, built in
1999, cost about $20,000 and called for about 360 hours of labor.
Rick Meisterheim, of Michigan’s nonprofit Wagbo Peace Center
coordinated the project. He reports that the 12 producers contributed
together about $11,000 toward the cost of the unit and agreed to
a yearly membership fee of $25 and a 25 cents per-bird charge.
With three other Nebraska growers, David Bosle bought a mobile
processing trailer in a cooperative effort. The farmers and others
in the community share
a trailer equipped with killing cones, a scalder, a feather picker,
a scale and an evisceration area. The processor, purchased with
help from Nebraska’s Center for Rural Affairs, which received
a SARE grant, allows the four farmers to share the cost of processing.
They also rent out the mobile unit to other farmers or, at a discount,
to community groups like 4-H.
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