Pastured Poultry Talk

It's never too early or late to think about turkeys. In this episode, Mike starts off talking to Spence about current farm events, which steers the conversation to turkey breeding. Mike has been setting up his Beltsvile Small White breeding program. And no discussion about turkeys is complete without a chat about blackhead. Spence authored a great paper with NCAT on blackhead. About mid-way through, Spence ducks out and Mike finishes the episodes by sharing a couple of slides from his Year Round Turkey Production presentation at the 2016 PASA Farming for the Future Conference where he talks about grinding and cutting up turkey for the year round markets. Reminder: Now is the time to be planning your processing equipment purchases. I am a dealer specializing in small scale poultry processing equipment. Visit millsidefarm.com for more information.

It's never too early or late to think about turkeys. In this episode, Mike starts off talking to Spence about current farm events, which steers the conversation to turkey breeding. Mike has been setting up his Beltsvile Small White breeding program. And no discussion about turkeys is complete without a chat about blackhead. Spence authored a great paper with NCAT on blackhead. About mid-way through, Spence ducks out and Mike finishes the episodes by sharing a couple of slides from his Year Round Turkey Production presentation at the 2016 PASA Farming for the Future Conference where he talks about grinding and cutting up turkey for the year round markets. Reminder: Now is the time to be planning your processing equipment purchases. I am a dealer specializing in small scale poultry processing equipment. Visit millsidefarm.com for more information.

As a continuation of episode 35, Spence is back for a guest host spot to talk about pasture management. We talk about managing broilers and layers on pasture. Spence is in the midst of transitioning his layers from an egg mobile to a daily move prairie schooner for precision manure management and predator protection. We go from pastures to silvopastures in progress to hillside pastures. Poultry can build soil really fast or destroy it really fast, which leads to a discussion about phosphorous. Spence tosses out a stackable enterprise to deal with excess phosphorous. How to reap the manure investment from your pasture? The conversation ends with fixed housing and some of the associated problems. Save the date for a May pastured poultry workshop in Arkansas.

[gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="249,253,252,251"] North Carolina producer John McAuley (Healthy Hen Farms) joins the show to talk about his pastured broiler operation, marketing frozen chicken, and some lessons learned in the brooder. John focuses on pasture-raised broilers and turkeys and expects to raise approximately 8,000 birds in 2016. John started his pastured poultry career in the mid 1990's as Polyface's second apprentice. He wanted to share some of his perspective on selling frozen chicken (an episode 30 topic). We also check in on his operation in general. Here's some of what we cover:

• Lessons of building on leased land.
• Why John ended the wholesale egg business. Why he says, pick one thing and do that one thing well.
• John shares his modifications to the Salatin style daily move pen in terms of size, ventilation, and construction.
• Healthy Hen Farms sells 100% of its chicken frozen as a way to compensate with the logistical nightmare of selling fresh, whole birds. Going all frozen has completely changed Healthy Hen Farm's business. He's able to make deliveries all year round while collapsing the production season.
• Currently processing 120-130 birds per hour.
• John talks about his new brooder design and why the QC Supply game bird drinkers is one of the best things about the brooder.

Find John Online:

• Healthyhenfarms.com
• chickenpeople.com

John mentioned these products in the podcast that you might be interested in:

• QC Supply game bird drinkers
• Ashley Scalder
• Featherman Pro Plucker

Terrell Spencer joins Mike as a guest host. Fresh off an APPPA related trip to the Mother Earth News Fair in Belton, Texas, the two share their impressions about the show. Highlights of the episode:

• Is Texas poised as the next pastured poultry hot spot? There are several processing options accessible to the DFW and Austin markets: Windy Meadows Family Farm and Cobb Creek are state inspected. Dewberry Hills Farm is USDA inspected.
• At the fair, Spence talked about selling beyond farmers market; he overviews a key point or two about the differences between selling to restaurant and retail outlets.
• We learn one of the keys to a good farming presentation. Beware of what might or might not be behind the scenes.
• At APPPA's dinner reception, Joel Salatin outlined a few weaknesses that he sees in the pastured poultry community right now. Spence and Mike kick those topics around and offer our perspectives on eggs, housing, processing, and pasture management.

Stay tuned. Spence will be back on a future episode.

Rebbeca Thistlethwaite and her co-author and husband Jim Dunlop wrote the book The New Livestock Farmer: The Business of Raising and Selling Ethical Meats and the author of Farms of the Future. Between them, they have a diverse livestock, orchard, and vegetable farming history. Their pastured poultry production includes layers (flocks as large as 5,000), broilers (up to 10,000 a year), a few hundred turkeys. We cover:

• The challenges of marketing underground broilers.
• The marketing reality of Broad Breasted and heritage turkeys.
• How writing the book helped Rebecca and Jim decide the future of their commercial farming ventures.
• What is an ethical meat?
• The three questions you can ask yourself to be more like a hedgehog.
• Principled marketing and the 80/20 rule to the lifetime value of a customer.
• Should your customer pay increasingly higher prices for your inefficiencies?

Links to Resources:

• Buy The New Livestock Farmer* by Thistlethwaite and Dunlop
• Good to Great* by Jim Collins (a book mentioned in the podcast by Rebecca)
• Rebecca Thistlethwaite

*Amazon affiliate link

Members of the UC Davis pastured poultry research farm join the podcast to tell us about their project. Mike is joined by Dr. Richard Blatchford and Carine Elkhoraibi. The project describes itself as "a new education, research and innovation hub for pastured poultry producers (layers and broilers), master gardeners, backyard flock keepers, academia, students, food buyers, food safety and animal welfare auditors." In this episode, the UC Davis teams introduces the project and its goals. At the time of the recording, the farm's first batch of 150 layers were approaching laying age. We talked about brooding, egg mobile design, predators, research, Avian Influenza, Proposition 2 and more. Resources

• Learn more about the UC Davis pastured poultry project.
• Plans for an Egg Mobile and portable shade structure are available in the Innovations at the Farm PDF.

In this episode, we provide you with some show updates and explain our infrequency and most importantly, tell you how we're moving forward. Mike has upgraded his podcast studio--what do you think about the sound?

We also share one of the hottest pastured poultry events happening in the February in conjunction with the Mother Earth News Fair in Belton, TX. Including a dinner reception with Joel Salatin that's sponsored by Yanmar. Details at http://www.apppa.org/content/21994

Stay up to date with show announcements and new episode releases by going to http://forms.aweber.com/form/20/1447494020.htm. We'll never sell or share your email address with third party marketers.

Direct all questions about the show to [email protected].

Mike interviews Mark Kastel of Cornucopia Institute to discuss the Institute's report "Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture." The gold standard in organic egg production, according to Mark, is smaller, pasture-raised flocks, and these are the farms that earn the coveted 5-egg rating in the accompanying egg scorecard.

At about 14 minutes, Mark starts drawing a distinction between pasture-raised and enhanced outdoor access. Enhanced outdoor access (a 4 egg rating), he says, is what mainstream organic consumers think they're getting, but the prevailing marketplace reality is not even close.

This short interview will give you insights into the organic egg production, but the full report is recommended reading as it demonstrates a understanding of pasture-raised in the context of the issues facing farmers.

Resources:

Organic Egg Scorecard

Cornucopia's Scrambled Egg Report

In a post-Thanksgiving turkey love feast, Mike (www.millsidefarm.com) and Grady (www.gradyphelan.com) discuss cooking techniques including splatchcock and chicken ballotine preparations. Cooking and eating your product makes for great marketing stories. We transition to winter marketing, and we tackle the frozen chicken stigma, especially when dealing with chefs.

Send your questions to [email protected] and don't forget to share this podcast with your friends.

Cobb Creek Farm in Hillsboro, TX, is looking for an intern. Contact Grady, if you're interested.