Pastured Poultry Talk

Pastured Poultry Talk

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Pastured Poultry Talk episodes

  • PPT098: A Personal Invitation to Join Mike in Jacksonville

    As a Pastured Poultry Talk listener, it's incredibly important to me that you know about the APPPA Conference in Jacksonville from January 19-21, 2020. This episode explains that the Professional Pastured Poultry Conference is and how it came to be. Find more information.

    Listen for a special offer.

    19 min
  • PPT097: Looking forward to Goose Day with Cotton Patch Geese

    I'm a cotton patch goose breeder. Well, I have geese that are old enough to mate. We'll save the moniker of goose breeder until we have some deliberate success.

    The cotton patch goose is a historical landrace breed originally used to weed cotton fields and other crops across the South. However, the introduction of pesticides replaced the need for geese, and they've been hidden away on farms until the internet made them popular again. The common qualities of the breed include autosexing goslings and adults, gentle disposition, medium sized, great weeders, and broody.

    In pastured poultry, geese have a very popular use as guard animals, which is job one for my flock of Cotton Patch Geese. I will also use them for vegetation control on different parts of the farm. Most of this work relies on successfully hatching goslings, but after I have goslings to build the breeding pens out and to satisfy my utilitarian needs, I need to have a market for the geese.

    Christmas goose is a traditional market, and on the episode, I talk about a regional Pennsylvania holiday called Goose Day, which is celebrated in the Juniata River Valley. According to a 2015 Penn Live article, Michaelmas Day was originally a holiday to celebrate the archangel Michael in 480. Over time, by the 15th century, it became a popular day to pay leases, and the tradition of adding a plump goose to the payment was established. The tradition stuck and made it's way to Mifflin and Juniata Counties with German settlers and is popularly called Goose Day. You can read more the article Happy Goose Day! Here's everything you need to know about the holiday.

    It's too early to know what the 2020 goose season will bring, but my first priority is to get goslings.

    Pastured Poultry Talk Episodes with Breeders

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/08/27/dangerous-breeder/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/07/04/breeding-delaware-chickens/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/05/15/ppt003-hatching-eggs-on-the-homestead-with-harvey-ussery-2/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/07/24/ppt013-not-a-backyard-chicken-club-jim-adkins-interview-part-1-2/

    33 min
  • Troubleshooting Turkey Processing: Is It Possible to Get a Clean Pluck? PPT096

    This is an edited version of the article I published in Issue 113 of the APPPA Grit, which was based on the conversation in this podcast. Not a member of APPPA? Go check them out.

    Last fall, I had the pleasure of consulting with a producer on some questions about his farm's turkey processing procedure. Since turkey processing season 2019 is fast approaching, I wanted to share some highlights of that conversation in this podcast. One of the biggest challenges with the turkey processing was the amount of hand plucking required to finish the birds. The hand plucking went anywhere from five to ten minutes extra. The natural question becomes, "can I pluck the turkeys clean like I do with chickens?" I had this same conversation with a different person recently, so I know it's a relatively common question. The first place to troubleshoot this type of problem is the scalder.

    The farm I was talking to was scalding and plucking four turkeys that dressed between 16 and 20 pounds in a Poultry Man 41" scalder and a Featherman XL plucker. Due to problems with the turkeys catching in the rotating platform of the scalder, the farm was manually dunking 4 turkeys in the rotary scalder (the platform was stationary and vertical). Then in the plucker, the birds were getting jammed up. One person actually had to man the plucker.

    Maintain Water Temperature and Level

    When scalding anything, it helps to ensure your scalder maintains the water temperature as you process. My scalder has one 65,000 BTU burner, and for turkeys, I need to heat supplemental water because I can process turkeys faster than the water recovers. The temperature recovery problem is compounded because the turkeys remove a lot of water from the scalder, so it's not just heating up water that has cooled ten degrees, it's heating up larger quantities of cold water. In addition to maintaining temperature, make sure you keep the water level full.

    Stop Dunking Birds Up and Down

    For the processors using a manual scalding approach, the first piece of advice I always give is to stop dunking birds up and down. This enables a bad scald. Basically, the breast gets more scald than the legs and thighs, so it's uneven.

    If you are manually scalding, try dropping the birds into the scald water and then stir them like soup. Test your scald early and often because the birds will scald faster with this approach, but they will be consistent. Plucking will be a pleasure, even by hand. This process works for heritage birds, too. I remember processing at a farm in North Carolina a few Thanksgivings ago; I ran the manual scalder and there was no dunking involved, and my back was appreciative.

    If you're using a rotary scalder, there's no reason to hand dunk. Adjust the volume of birds to flow through the system efficiently. In the case of rotary scalders, you can often increase your throughput by scalding birds on both sides of the rotating rack.

    Remove Feet and Point Necks In

    On the scalder, I recommend taking the feet off the turkeys prior to scalding (which the farm was doing) and loading the turkeys so that the necks point into the center of the tank, not the sides. Sometimes with scalders that have a gap between the rotating platform and the sides of the scalder, the long turkey necks find a way to slide into that gap.

    Add the Right Number of Birds to the Plucker

    The goal of the plucker is to have enough birds so that they tumble against each other; otherwise, the plucking requires a human hand to make the birds tumble or the feathers won't pick off. However, there is often another problem we don't think about in the plucker, and that's too many birds. My recommendation during the podcast was was to put three turkeys into that 32" diameter plucker instead of four. This gives the birds room to go around the drum and still tumble into each other.

    I had the pleasure of the hearing back from the farm after their 2018 turkey processing, and the tips I shared greatly helped process the nearly 500 turkeys. They confirmed that three turkeys through the plucker was the optimum number.

    If you're using a smaller scalder and plucker, your batch size may be limited to one or two turkeys at a time. If you're using a 22" or 23" plucker, you're likely limited to one turkey. If you move up to a 27" diameter plucker, you have one tom or two hens, if we're talking about broad breasted whites.

    It's incredibly hard to pluck one turkey efficiently. It will take somebody babysitting the plucker to keep the turkey tumbling. And even in the smaller diameter pluckers of less than 30", two turkeys will find a way to jam up frequently. Again, it needs a babysitter. Don't fight it. Accept it. And if you're doing more than a few dozen turkeys at any one processing, you'll get a lot of improvement with a 32" or 35" or larger plucker and a scalder to match.

    Wrap-Up

    You'll notice that most of the solutions to a poor pluck do not focus on the plucker. This is why you sometimes need somebody to talk through issues with you. We obsess over efficiency, especially processing line throughput to the point where we only see bigger batches as the solution.

    Cleanly plucking three turkeys at a time with no hand plucking will pencil out more efficiently every time compared to running four turkeys that require ten minutes of hand plucking. All the commercial scalders and pluckers should make your turkey featherless with little work from you. If that's not your experience, troubleshoot, and invest in the proper equipment, if needed.

    Resources Mentioned
    • Poultry Man Equipment
    • Featherman Equipment
    • The best turkey kill cone you'll ever use
    25 min
  • Evaluating A Started Turkey Business as a Buyer and Seller - PPT095

    Turkeys are one of the most adored birds in the pastured poultry community with a strong emotional tie to family Thanksgiving; however, they can often be challenging to raise because they require more time and attention than a chicken. Those challenges often see high mortality rates or farmers who opt out of turkeys all together.

    There are at least two possible solutions to the turkey raising woes. The first is to get better at turkeys, but turkeys arrive on farm in one of the busiest times of the season, so it's not always that easy. The second possibility is to purchase started turkeys from another grower. In addition to the opportunities, this podcast episode will focus on the math and marketing of 6 week old started turkeys.

    How much does it cost to raise a turkey for 6 weeks?

    As producers, we spend a lot of time focusing on cost of production, and with young turkeys those costs are evident from day one. The cost of day old turkey poults is all over the map and can range anywhere from $6 to nearly $9 for a day old poult. Badger's Millside Farm resold day-old sexed old turkeys poults for $5.50 each.

    The high poult cost from commercial hatcheries is made worse with mortality. The first calculation I share in the podcast episode is refactoring poult cost to account for the first week mortality. If I purchase 20 poults for $6.43 and have 10% mortality in the first several days, I'm left with 18 turkeys. The new cost per poult becomes $7.14.

    I look at feed next. If you feed 8 pounds of certified organic feed at $0.42 / lb., you end up with $3.36 per turkey in feed cost for six weeks. The feed cost is not all that dramatic when placed in the context of poult cost and labor. If you source a non-organic feed at $0.25 / lb., the feed cost would become $2.00 per bird.

    Next up is labor. I calculate an example of $15 / hr. for 15 minutes a day to arrive at a $8.75 per turkey in labor.

    Put it all together, and the cost to raise 20 turkeys is $19.25 per turkey ($7.14 + $3.36 + $8.75).

    This example doesn't factor in bedding, grit, electricity, infrastructure costs, or mortality after the first five days.

    The comparison is simple from this point. Badger's Millside Farm sold 6 week old turkeys (fed organic feed) for $16 each.

    There are a couple reasons why your cost would be higher than $16. I raise more than 20 in a batch. My flock mortality was 4% and I did not pay a retail cost for poults.

    Marketing Started Turkeys

    The best leads came through existing channels, either through exising customers or word of mouth. To sell some of the started turkeys I raised on spec, I tried Facebook Ads and Craigslist. Facebook has never been a good marketing channel for me to find pastured poultry growers, and that hypothesis continues to test true. I spent $30 in advertising to make one $64 sale. Definitely not worthwhile.

    The Craigslist ad received less than 1/3 of the responses, but it reached my target audience - pastured poultry farmers, which is different than people who raise a few birds. My Craigslist ad generated $160 in sales. As you can see, we're talking small numbers of birds in these channels.

    I'm taking interest for 2020 day old poults and started turkeys through my farm page, Badger's Millside Farm.

    29 min
  • PPT094: What podcasting teaches us about marketing pastured poultry

    It's no surprise that I'm hot on the podcasting medium. Pastured Poultry Talk is a podcast, after all. In Episode 93 of the show, Kenny Troiano referenced his podcast, Bred to Perfection, as a primary marketing asset for his membership site.

    The publication of the episode was well timed because it happened soon after I returned from the Podcast Movement conference in Orlando. If you want to hone your pastured poultry business, you associate with expert people (through APPPA, for example). If you want to develop your podcasting craft, you seek out the smartest people you can and spend time with them. That's what Podcast Movement was for me.

    Here are the key points:

    1. Don't be afraid to selectively focus on a niche group for your products and farm. Success will demand it.
    2. Don't measure your success by impressions or population; there's a subset of the existing population who is your customer.
    3. Develop your marketing so that it creates relationships, so you can connect with your niche.
    4. If you're already engaged in relationship based marketing, you can power up your approach with a podcast targeted to your customers (not other farmers). You're already creating the content; repurpose it.
    Resources

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2018/08/13/ppt073-exploring-the-intersection-of-podcasting-pastured-poultry-farming-and-business/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/08/27/dangerous-breeder/

    10 min
  • How to avoid being a dangerous chicken breeder

    Dangerous breeders are everywhere and the internet gives them a platform to perpetuate bad breeding habits at the expense of offspring that represents the breed. A dangerous breeder is someone who produces offspring that doesn't represent the breed. They often don't know how to selectively breed, and they're not interested in learning.

    I may be characterized as a dangerous breeder in that I have done things that are counter to good breeding practices, but I've not really perpetuated my lack of knowledge by selling my failed breeding projects. I understand my gap in breeding knowledge and the gap in the quality of my birds. I tend to eat my lack of understanding rather than selling it.

    Master breeder Kenny Troiano of the Breeders Academy and Bred to Perfection podcast joins the show to help us become better breeders. Too often, when we talk to breeders about their work, we focus on the end result--the successes they've had and that leaves a large gap in knowledge for people who want to start breeding. If you want to breed well, then your effort goes way beyond mating a rooster and a hen to hatch an egg.

    In this episode of Pastured Poultry Talk, Kenny lays out the foundation for any serious breeding effort. You'll still need to read, to learn, and to seek a mentor, but you'll get a clear picture of the work involved.

    It's not an easy effort, but that's why it becomes important for you to determine your goals. If you want a few birds on the farm to admire and eat, that will have different requirements than selectively breeding a family of birds for productivity and breed representation.

    What Have Commercial Breeders Done

    The commercial breeders understand hybrid vigor, says Kenny. That understanding has produced the 300+ eggs per year layers and the meat birds that can be slaughtered as early as 35 days. It's incredible to think about that this productivity came from within the traits that already existed within the genetics of the chickens; the hybrid crosses enhance the traits.

    Hybrid vigor has a ceiling, however. Cross two breeds and they increase their production. Cross two hybrids and you end up with variable, unpredictable results that produce at a rate less than the original hybrids.

    The commercial breeders, according to Kenny have pushed their breeding so far with proprietary crossings, that they are at risk of inbreeding depression. Disease resistance is also suffering in the commercial breeding lines.

    A Breeding Checklist

    Kenny covers a lot of ground in the episode, but here are some key points to think about as you (re)start your breeding journey.

    • Learn the origin and history of breed you want.
    • Understand culling and learn about defects.
    • If you see a defect, don't buy the bird. Defects are recessive, and if you breed two birds with the same defect, all offspring will be affected.
    • Breeding hybrids will have a variability in size, color, shape, etc. Commercial hybrids have unknown genetic qualities.
    • Every breeder should know what their common defect is. Hint: If you're buying breeding stock, ask what the common defect is!
    • Always select offspring that's better than the parents. When selecting birds, go beyond the top 10%. Look for the stand outs that take the family to the next level, whether that's one or a handful.
    • Find a breeding trio to establish your program so you can see exactly what the birds are. Hatching chicks as a way to establish your family is often problematic, variable, and disappointing.
    • Setup a clan mating system (also called spiral mating system), which is three groups of birds. The clan mating system is a good maintenance system and helps ensure genetic diversity. Kenny has not introduced new bloodlines into his breeding in over 30 years.
    • Understand clan mating is only one of the types of breeding programs. You'll use other programs in parallel to achieve the results you want. Another common approach is to line breed.
    • Never mix breeding birds with production birds.
    • Only breed birds that have the potential to advance the family by selecting offspring better than the parents.
    • Hatch has many offspring as you can afford.
    • Understand genetics.
    • Get a mentor and hang out with people smarter than you!

    Kenny provided this reading list. His writings and Breeders Academy make these topics more accessible:

    • Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment
    • Mendel's Law of Segregation
    • Sexlink traits and quantitative traits (polygenic)
    • Mutation theory
    • Punnett Square
    Show Resources

    You can connect with Kenny through any of these resources or email him directly.

    • Breeders Academy Podcast
    • Breeders Bulletin (Free Email Sign up)
    • Breeders Academy Sign Up for Pastured Poultry Talk Listeners

    Publications

    • Poultry Press
    • Gamefowl Breeders Manual (Amazon)
    Pastured Poultry Talk Episodes Referenced

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/05/15/ppt003-hatching-eggs-on-the-homestead-with-harvey-ussery-2/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/07/24/ppt013-not-a-backyard-chicken-club-jim-adkins-interview-part-1-2/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2017/05/20/ppt051-pat-whitaker-breeds-black-australorps-for-utility/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/07/04/breeding-delaware-chickens/

    1 hr 3 min
  • PPT092: Understanding the difference in as-fed and dry matter nutrition in poultry feeds

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2016/06/14/ppt044-understanding-the-nutritional-benefits-of-black-soldier-fly-as-poultry-feed/Confused about the difference between feed values expressed in as-fed or dry matter percentages?

    The difference between as-fed nutrition and dry-matter nutrition in poultry feeds is water. The dried feed removes the water, giving us a dry matter calculation. Using the mealworm protein example provided by Cheryl Powers in episode 91 of Pastured Poultry Talk, the live mealie has a 19% protein level. Dry the meal worm by removing the water and the protein jumps to 55%.

    As a producer, you need to know the nutrition of your feed if you purposefully give that feed to your flock. In the podcast episode, I talk through an example where this knowledge would be beneficial. If you wanted to increase the protein of a chick starter from a 21% protein to a 26%, you could use the Pearson Square to create a new ration from the chick starter and the mealworms.

    But which type of mealworm should you use?

    The as-fed protein level of a live mealworm will not work in our example because the protein is too low. You'd need to use the dried mealworm to increase the protein level of the chick starter to a turkey starter.

    Resources about Dry Matter and As-Fed
    • Feedstuff Comparisons – As Fed versus Dry Matter (PDF)
    • Dry Matter and As Fed Conversions (PDF)
    • Formulating Rations with Pearson Square

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/08/15/farming-mealworms-for-chicken-feed/

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2016/06/14/ppt044-understanding-the-nutritional-benefits-of-black-soldier-fly-as-poultry-feed/

    f

    7 min
  • Farming mealworms for chicken feed with Cheryl Powers: PPT091

    Crickets are a popular insect protein for humans, and black soldier fly larvae receive most of the attention among chicken keepers; Cheryl Powers, Jord Producers, plans to change that by farming mealworms as a supplemental chicken feed. Actually, she's working to position mealworms for reptiles, exotic birds, and humans (but we tend to stick to chickens).

    One of the biggest benefits of mealworms is that they are high in protein. There has also been published research in Poultry Science that shows feeding mealworms to chickens can increase average daily gain, feed conversation, egg size, and flavor.

    According to Cheryl, you only need to feed a small amount of mealworms to see an increase in the protein intake of the chickens' diet. Less than 10 mealworms is her recommendation. Chickens love the mealworms, and they will forage on them without hesitation.

    There can be too much of a good thing. If the birds fill up on the fiber of the mealworms, they won't get all the other vitamins, mineral, and nutrients they need to thrive. Mealworms, in other words, are not a complete diet.

    Nutrition of Mealworm as Chicken Feed

    According to analysis by Jord Producers, the mealworm contains the following nutrition profile:

    • Protein
      • As-fed: 19%
      • Dry Matter: 55%
    • Fiber
      • As-fed: 3%
      • Dry Matter: 8%
    • Fat
      • As-fed: 9%
      • Dry Matter: 26%

    As-fed calculations represent the live mealworm, as eaten by the chicken. The dry matter removes the water from mealworm, thereby concentrating the nutrition.

    Growing Mealworms for Chicken Feed

    As Cheryl describes in the podcast episode, the mealworms are raised on a wheat bran with sliced potatoes or carrots as a water source. Mealworms are farmed indoors in an environmentally controlled space.

    The tubs containing the mealworms are stacked vertically, making this a versatile farming operation. One of the company's growers, has actually repurposed an unused hog farrowing barn for the mealworm farm.

    Jord Produces is in the first year of business and building markets as they learn to be insect farmers. They have a first goal of being able to produce 400 pounds of mealworms a week.

    For now, the poultry focus will be on supplemental feeds and treats for chickens. Cracking the commodity pricing floor to compete with soy is a difficult task. The other interesting challenge is that it takes mealworms approximately two-and-a half months to reach harvest. When you put that in perspective, a cornish cross chicken can be ready to harvest in under two months (7 or 8 weeks).

    But as more and more consumers move toward soy-free fed poultry products, insect proteins may make inroads as a poultry feed ingredient, pending certification from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).

    Contact Cheryl Powers

    Jord Producers: website | Instagram | Facebook | Email

    Resources Mentioned in Episode
    • Efficacy of mealworm and super mealworm larvae probiotics as an alternative to antibiotics challenged orally with Salmonella and E. coli infection in broiler chicks
    • Bug Eaters
    • Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)
    40 min
  • PPT090: Is it time for pastured poultry to slaughter some sacred cows?

    In the week or so preceding this episode, Polyface announced it was slaughtering one of its sacred cows. They were going to ship product. Social media was a angry throng of pastured poultry injustice warriors. If you're looking for commentary on Daniel and Joel's decision, you're in the wrong spot. My commentary is for the people commenting, and I'll place that commentary in the context of pastured poultry.

    Episode 89 of the podcast featured Garoleen Wilson and Jhawk Farm in Kansas. That chat Garoleen brought into focus the context from which we should be evaluating whether or not shipping is a viable option for your farm. It won't be for everybody, but that doesn't mean it's wrong for the community at-large.

    A critical distinction, from my perch, is to ask yourself, what are the principles that can't be compromised and what are the limiting beliefs (for you Ravenscraft listeners)? Shipping is a limiting belief, an obstacle that could prevent you from growth. It could keep you and the community from relevance. Or it could fizzle from the consumer demand.

    I implore you to go beyond the copy cat-style of production. Don't adopt another farms business vision, mission, and beliefs just because you idolize what they're doing. Learn your craft. Learn the principles to stand on and then innovate around those principles. In pasture-raised poultry, two principles to stand on are rotational grazing and seasonally appropriate outdoor production.

    Should you ship pasture-raised poultry?

    Not all of us live on the coast or have easy access to population centers that can sustain a direct-to-consumer model. Garoleen lives in a county that is 30 miles x 30 miles and has a population of 3,600 people. It's over two hours to a town that's big enough to support a Wal-Mart. She's producing as many chickens as there are people in her county. And we know not everyone in the county is eating pastured poultry.

    Garoleen has the foundation for her pastured poultry business - she can articulate a why, a how, and a what. To make it a business, she has to work through coops and distributors. The coop takes the chicken to the Denver and Golden, Colorado markets and stretches local to about 200 miles. She also works with Crowd Cow who consigns the chicken and then ships it through the mail to customers.

    These two sales channels enable Jhawk Farm to grow a business that wouldn't have been feasible 10 years ago. The coop would have been possible, but the expanded regional or national distribution would not. And it's that additional option that builds scale within the community or at least provides potential.

    The fight for relevance is real. Pastured poultry gets an upsized exposure due to social media and the ease of information delivery. But if we want to impact the health of the environment, the health of the chickens, the health of our rural economies, and the health of our eaters, we need to slaughter some sacred cows.

    If shipping product bothers you, take a personal stand. Don't abstain just because you heard a presentation five, ten, or twenty years ago.

    Resources

    https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/07/16/side-hustle-kansas/

    10 min
  • Doing the pasture-raised broiler side hustle in rural Kansas with Garoleen Wilson

    Correction: In the podcast episode, I state Garoleen is producing 7,000 broilers. That was an error in my interpretation of her numbers. She's actually on track to produce 3,500 broilers on pasture in her fourth year. That still a fantastic trajectory and that growth is the point, as the numbers will fluctuate from year to year.

    Pasture-raised broilers make a great side hustle, but when you're farming a niche product in a rural community, sometimes you need to think creatively and efficiently to make the business work. That's what Garoleen Wilson from Jhawk Farm in Kansas discusses on episode 89 of the Pastured Poultry Talk podcast.

    I first met Garoleen through my work with APPPA in 2016 as I was planning a cross-country seminar series. We had talked about potential seminar locations in Kansas. As luck would have it, we did not go to Kansas during that tour, but Garoleen did get involved with pasture-raised broilers.

    Her start in pastured poultry was heavily influence by a bout with uterine cancer. Cancer caused her to focus on clean eating and made her seriously evaluate what she was eating. Garoleen's story is one we see play out regularly through the pastured poultry producer community; as people seek better food, they often times turn to producing it for themselves and others.

    During her research, she found the Pastured Poultry Talk podcast and binge listened. She's since sought the comfort and wisdom of the pastured poultry community through APPPA has been steadily growing her pastured poultry side hustle ever since.

    Garoleen went from a few family hens to thousands of broilers by the end of her third year. By her fourth year, she's adapted the pastured model to fit her farm circumstances and create some of her own efficiencies. For example, Garoleen day ranges broilers inside a electric netting with regular flock moves to keep them on fresh grass. The day range model suits her time constraints and labor requirements.

    Mobile Brooder

    To reduce stress on the chicks when moving from the brooder to the pasture, Garoleen and husband Joe use a round, mobile brooder that can be drug from the brooder barn to the pasture. This eliminates the handling stress of crating, transporting, and unhandling. The brooder has a door that allows the hens to unload themselves. Check out this video from Jhawk Farm to see the mobile brooder in action.

    Handling Full Chicken Crates with Ease

    In the podcast episode, Garoleen made a few things clear. This is a pastured poultry side hustle, so she didn't have time to waste, and she's not getting any younger. These two points really punctuate the loading and handling of crates full of market-weight broilers. The practical solution? Use to rollers to move the weight onto the trailer instead of the legs, backs, and arms of the farmers.

    Garoleen and her chicken catch crew can load chickens into a stack of crates. Normally, each loaded crate needs to be lifted and carried onto the trailer. The physical exertion and wear on the body from moving chickens is a real health concern. To make the handling of full crates less work, Garoleen and Joe repurposed roller conveyors to easily move the stack of crates from the pasture shelter onto a stock trailer.

    Two tracks sit on the floor of the trailer beside each other. Another set of rollers connect the trailer floor to the ground. Crates are stacked on a piece of plywood to make rolling the stack even easier. After the stack is loaded onto the stock trailer, short blocks of wood are placed between the bottom crates to maintain air flow around all sides of the crates.

    At the processor, unloading crates is a one person job. Garoleen can roll each stack off the stock trailer and onto the processors unloading area in a matter of minutes.

    Watch the Wilsons load crates in this video:

    [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Crate-Handling-at-Jhawk-Farm.mp4"][/video]

    Advice for Future Pastured Poultry Farmers

    Garoleen encourages people to start small if they think pastured poultry is something they're interesting in pursuing. She's taking that advice in 2019 by raising just a couple dozen turkeys for Thanksgiving.

    Resources

    Contact Jhawk Farm - Facebook | Instagram | Website

    Named Resources:

    • American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA)
    • Crowd Cow
    • High Plains Food Coop
    • SWOT Analysis
    57 min

About Pastured Poultry Talk

From the publisher's feed

Mike Badger dives into the the production, the processing, the marketing, and the business of farming pasture-raised poultry. Pastured Poultry Talk is THE podcast where raising chickens, turkeys, and…