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Forages
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Paul Ehrhardt, who raised
2,500 chickens in 2001, grows a dense combination of clover
and grass to pasture his birds and improve the soil on his Sun
Prairie, Wis., farm.
- Photo by Wolfgang Hoffmann |
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Research, along with the observations of many producers, suggests
that birds and pasture offer mutual benefits. Planting diverse forages
that improve soil quality by fixing nitrogen or adding organic matter
makes good sense, even though poultry producers sometimes debate
how much grass or other forage meat birds and layers actually eat,
and how much benefit they get from it. Birds are not true ruminants
and cannot digest the cellulose in most plants very efficiently
(though turkeys and geese are better at it than chickens), but they
do get some nutrients.
Joel Salatin has established what he calls a “permanent polyculture”
of clovers and grasses in his pastures, with varieties, such as
native grasses, broadleaves, clovers, chickories, oats and rye that
mature at different times of the season. His chickens will, “eat
almost anything as long as it’s not too tall and not too tough,”
he said.
Oregon egg producer Robert Plamondon has found that pasture research
from the early 1900s still applies. “Everything I’ve
read points to oats as the ideal cool-season green feed,”
he said, “while ladino clover, alfalfa, and to a lesser extent
other clovers are better summer feeds. My own experience with oats
has been very favorable.”
Salatin maintains that his broilers get enough nutrition from
forage, insects, and grubs that they need 30 percent less feed than
broilers raised under the industrial confinement model.
Animal Health
Pastured flocks are generally resistant enough to disease and infections
that many producers forego the use of antibiotics or medicated feed.
Pastured poultry producers often use that aspect of their operation
as a marketing tool. Few, if any, pastured or range producers report
significant problems with cannibalism, so the practice of beak trimming
is uncommon.
By contrast, chickens raised in confined houses remain at risk
for a host of respiratory illnesses because of air quality marred
by dust made up of excrement, ammonia, litter, skin and feathers.
To guard against illnesses such as bronchitis and necrotic enteritis,
confinement chickens receive routine inoculations and antibiotics.
Pastured birds, however, are more susceptible to weather-related
stress. They can get too cold, too hot, be rained upon or be injured
by predators or pen walls. Wildlife can transmit disease-causing
microbes.
Diseases such as coccidiosis can occur. Use frequent rotations
and allow pasture plots time to rest to knock back pathogens. Clean
pens and brooders regularly between flocks to keep harmful microbes
in check.
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