Progress report for FNC24-1416
Project Information
I (Michael Gutschenritter) am the project coordinator. My family and I own Three Brothers Farm, LLC, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. For the past 10 years of our business, I have been working with pastured laying hens. Each year, I have significantly refined our systems to enhance the health of the flock and the pasture, increase profitability, and ease the workload of the farm workers. I have grown our flock of laying hens from 25 to over 3000. I am an active member of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA), in which I'm constantly engaged with other members about streamlining our farm operations. I am also trained in technical and creative writing. This will serve me well in communicating the project's findings to the greater pastured poultry community. I have successfully executed a 2021 NCR-SARE grant (FNC21-1275), which has now impacted hundreds of farms in at least five countries as they have implemented the findings of that project. In addition to coordinating the project, I will trial the feeding system with laying hens and young pullets, taking note of all the relevant data outlined in the proposal and executing improvements as needed. I will also host pasture walks and communicate all of the findings to the pastured poultry community.
David Boatright owns and manages Fed From The Farm in Sedalia, Missouri. He and his family raise pastured chicken, turkeys, hogs, grass fed beef, and lamb. His main market is selling direct to consumers online. In the last 10 years he has raised over 100,000 pasture-raised birds in mobile coops. His ability to maintain organization and document relevant, useful data has delivered clarity to his operation's direction and has inspired others to strive for the same. David's role in this project is to trial the feeding system with broilers and turkeys, taking note of all the relevant data outlined in the proposal. He will also help supply the bins through his regional contacts and construction consultation during the build out phase and when troubleshooting becomes necessary.
One of the greatest challenges in a pastured poultry enterprise
is excessive labor. The most strenuous labor comes from feeding
the flocks. The large majority of pastured poultry farmers use
5-gallon buckets to feed their flocks. Most farmers currently do
the following daily chore in order to feed a flock:
- manually fill feed buckets (35 pounds each) from a grain bin,
- lift buckets onto a pick-up truck or trailer,
- transport them to the mobile coops,
- lift buckets off of the vehicle or trailer,
- carry the buckets to the feeder, and
- lift buckets to dump feed it into a feeder.
This has been the accepted way to feed poultry flocks. Typically,
on a farm with 2800 hens, for example, the farmer will manually
move 700-900 pounds of feed every day. Handling it multiple times
means the farmer often lifts over 2000 pounds every single day
just for this chore. This directly affects the emotional and
physical strain on the farmer, leading to 1) high rates of
burnout and 2) injuries such as carpel tunnel and ligament tears
(both experienced by Michael, Project Coordinator)
In the proposed project, we will replace the current strenuous
system with creative technological design.
In order to eliminate the excessive daily labor of manually
feeding poultry, we will use elements of conventional poultry
house technology, modify it to be mobile, and accommodate each
step of the process to minimize manual labor. The main piece of
equipment we will use is a standard feedline with deep pans.
Specifically, we will use a Cumberland brand, auger feed line. In
a conventional poultry house, this would be connected to a
stationary grain bin via a bin boot and unloader. The grain would
then be drawn through a 1.5-inch pipe with an auger. As the feed
flows through the pipe, it falls into feed pans through fittings
along the pipe until each pan is filled. The final pan is
equipped with a sensor that deactivates the motor when it is
full. This system is powered by an AC motor. We intend to keep
the premise the same, but make the necessary modifications to
make it function properly on a mobile coop.
Starting from the bin and moving to the motor, the following
modifications will be necessary:
- Grain bins need to be attached to the coops. Because grain
bins are built to be round and would be extremely challenging to
secure, we will hire a local individual to fabricate flat-fronted
grain hoppers. This will require extra bracing on the coop to
maintain the coop's integrity under the extra weight. - We will run the auger motor off of a 250Ah 12-volt battery in
each coop. This requires that we include a 2000 watt pure sine
inverter and a 700 watt solar panel (with a charge controller) on
top of each coop. We have already confirmed that these materials
are appropriately sized to operate the system.
Beyond the system described above, we need to consider how to
transport the feed to the coops. For this, we will do the
following with equipment already in use on the participating
farms (therefore not included in budget):
- Use currently installed feed bins to store bulk feed.
- Fill auger wagons from bins with the bulk feed every 8-10
days. - Drive the auger wagon to the coops and fill each grain hopper
that's attached to the coops.
We will build these systems in the Spring of 2024, operate with
them in a daily-move system, and refine the system as we deem
necessary. If there are any major changes that need to be made
after a grazing season, we will take the winter to make the
changes, and trial the changes in the Spring of 2025, finishing
the project by mid-June 2025.
We will take weekly assessments to collect data about the
following:
- Weekly time it takes to feed each flock (and associated labor
costs) - Levels of physical strain caused by feeding
- Levels of burnout (measured with Maslach Burnout Inventory)
from feeding
We are actively taking these assessment in the 2023 season in
order to have a comparison.
Michael will then distribute data results and construction
details to the pastured poultry industry through communications
listed below.
Objectives of the project include:
- Design and build a mobile solar-powered automated feeding
system for pastured poultry that eliminates all strenuous aspects
of daily feeding for farmers. - Identify necessary modifications for the four major types of
pastured poultry (Laying hens, pullets, broilers, turkeys). - Document data associated with labor in terms of time,
physical strain, and burnout levels. - Distribute findings and construction details to pastured
poultry industry through three articles (Grit, Organic
Broadcaster, Three Brothers Farm Farmer Newsletter), APPPA
(pastured poultry) forum discussion, and social media (Instagram-
KeepTheFlockMoving).
Cooperators
- - Producer
Research
The design of this feeding system has changed many times over the course of the project, but the concept has remained consistent. I had rectangular feed bins custom built to be secured to the front of the sliding coop. The coop itself is from Featherman Equipment and is made of 2-3/8" steel tube. The bins were made to attach with four 5/8" bolts to the frame of the coop. this was done by attaching angle iron along the back of the bin's sides. This gives us something to drill through. Large flat free tires hold the bins up and keep the weight off of the coop's frame, actually making it easier to pull the coop. At the bottom of the bin, there is a height-adjustable steel sleeve that connects to a straight feedline boot. From there, a conventional feedline runs the length of the coop. At the end of that feedline, there is a DC motor. You could use an AC motor, but it would require an inverter, which is not as efficient. On the inside of the coop, I built a plywood box big enough to hold a 200 amp hour lithium battery, a solar charge controller, a switch, and some extra wiring. I built the box such that there is air flow, but the chickens can not access any of the materials.
On top of the coop on the motor end (back of the coop), I mounted a solar panel large enough to maintain the battery. The wiring runs down to the plywood box and into the charge controller, which then feeds the battery. From the battery, I ran wiring to a switch that controls the motor. I was sure to run the wiring along the frame of the coop so there was no loose wiring that chickens could jump up on and cause the system to fail. The switch was a good addition. Without it, I wouldn't be able to work on the system unless I unhooked the battery. I generally have to tweak things here and there and troubleshoot a couple times a month, so it's worthwhile adding the switch. Also, since the battery is in there, I use it for running the lights for the pullets and laying hens. It works well for that and eliminates additional batteries and wiring. One less thing to manage.
I destroyed my coops a few times while testing everything out. When the bins are full of feed, they weigh over 3000 pounds. Without bracing, the front of the coop will collapse. I kept adding bracing to push the bottom of the bin forward as I moved the coops. It continued to fail. The amount of force on the coops is pretty tremendous. i don't fully understand the physics of it all, but it felt pretty dangerous at some points. I ended up simplifying the bracing significantly. Now, there's just a pipe going from each bottom leg of the bin up to the second arch of the coop's frame. What made this work, though, is changing how I pull the coop. I use two logging chains to pull each coop. One chain goes to a corner of the coop, like it used to. The other chain goes from the bottom connecting point (where the bin bolts to the lower frame) to the tractor's drawbar and back to the other connecting point. This way, I'm pulling the bin forward rather that letting it collapse the coop. And the bracing on the inside is now pulling the bin's legs backwards while i drive forward. Therefore, the front of the coop stays straight and there's nothing pushing the bin backwards.
The biggest pains for us has been 1) water getting into the boot at the bottom of the bin and 2) feed bridging in the bin when the feed gets low. The components are not technically designed to go together so there are small gaps where rain can enter into the system and get the feed wet. The feed then clumps and sticks to the boot, keeping new feed from entering the feedline. In this instance, the auger will run until the battery dies or someone fixes the problem. We have placed guards to block out the rain, but still, in a windy storm, we end up with some moisture in there.
We feed once a week, but depending on the age of the birds or number of birds, the feed gets consumed at different rates. That makes it important to keep an eye on the feed levels. If they get very low, the remaining feed has a hard time falling into the boot. In one bin, we painted the inside with graphite paint. That helped quite a bit. I will do the rest of them when the coops are empty this winter. We generally keep a rubber mallet out with the coops so employees can bang on the bins when they hear the motor running but feed isn't coming out. Usually, it will get the feed to flow down enough to keep the birds fed.
So far, the results have been mostly positive. There's no denying that there have been serious frustrations and fierce problem-solving sessions. First of all, the most important result for me personally is that I'm able to sleep through the night. This may sound silly, but when I was hauling buckets of feed every day, my right arm would start tingling at night and it would work into a severe nerve pain shooting down my arm. This happened every single night for months on end, waking me up in the middle of the night in agonizing pain. I was only getting 4-5 hours of sleep some nights. With little kids and a full-time farm, I felt like I was going absolutely crazy trying to keep my head on straight with little sleep. Within days of getting the automated feeders running, the pain started to fade away. Within two weeks, it was completely gone and it hasn't come back.
Now that we've been running these systems for a while and the kinks have mostly been worked out, I've documented a plateau in time spent feeding poultry. In all cases, the average time spent went from one hour per day to one hour per week, for a savings of six hours of handwork per week. It should be noted here that the hour that goes into the feeding is pretty mild labor compared to the labor that went into feeding by bucket. Feeding by bucket involved scooping feed, loading it on a trailer, driving it out to the pasture, unloading it, carrying it, and then dumping it into a feeder. Now, the labor involved is filling a grain wagon (either from a delivery truck or from our stationary bin with an electric auger), driving it out to the coops, lining it up with the new bins, running the hydraulic auger, and making sure feed is coming out of the wagon. I bring a garden hoe with me to scrape the feed down when it starts to bridge and get stuck up high in the wagon. So that is not very hard work. But I had to learn quite a bit about augers, hydraulics, and other equipment. I bought all those things used and had to fix just about everything once already, without having any experience with them in my past. It's something to note if one is intimidated by new equipment. It's well worth figuring out how to use it. Financially, we are saving $90 - $120 a week in labor directly associated with feeding. We pay our employees $15-$20 per hour. I value my time at $35 per hour, leading to a savings of $210 per week. Let me be clear about something, though. The savings are far beyond a per hour rate. We haven't had to replace an employee since these systems were installed. Hiring an employee and getting them up to speed is very expensive. On average, we consider it a $2000 expense, just to hire, train, process paperwork, schedule, and nurture a new employee. It appears that the bucket feeding was the part of the job that kept the door revolving on our farm.
Prior to the plateau, there were many challenges that kept me out working late trying to troubleshoot various things, such as electrical connections, dead batteries, and auger mishaps. So, the over time spent on the feeding got up to an hour a day, sometimes more. But that was to be expected with a new system like this.
We have also been measuring levels of physical strain. As mentioned above, I personally experienced life-changing results. I had, at the start of this project, taken over the feeding duties for our employees because we were losing employees who no longer wanted to feed with buckets for $15 an hour. On a scale from 1-10, in the moment of feeding, our average strain was 7.3. However, I emphasize the story above because that was an effect that came at a different time of the day and we weren't sure at the time that it was related to the feeding chores. After getting the kinks worked out, our physical strain is 1.2. It would be zero if we didn't have to constantly draw feed down from the wagon. We are working on a solution for that.
The final measurement is burnout, measured with Maslach Burnout Inventory. We have been collecting the data on this, but haven't yet compiled it into a readable format. It ended up being a bit more involved than we anticipated, so I will include the results in the final report. But I can say anecdotally that everyone involved in day to day operations is a lot happier and willing to work. Judging from the employee retention, we can conclude that no one is burning out like they used to.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
We hosted two pasture walks this summer. One was with Practical Farmers of Iowa, which has a broad reach. There were 75 participants in that one. We also hosted another one that had about 35 participants. We plan to do one more poultry-specific field day in 2025.
The tours were roughly two hours. We gave general overview of the farm's enterprises and did a specific detailed presentation about the feeders. Basically, it included my discussing how they were built, showing details and allowing people to get up close and familiar with the finer aspects of the system. Chickens were actively using the feeders at the time. I then did a demo of moving the coops with the bins on them. Back at the workshop, I showed the tractor and wagon that we use to fill the bins. There was a lot of interest and I heard abundant feedback at later events about how inspiring it was.
I also traveled out to California for a pastured poultry conference. I was there as a participant, but was asked to present about our efficiencies. So, i got to speak to about 50 of the most serious pastured poultry producers in the country about our fencing (also a SARE project) and the feeders. while it wasn't planned, it sparked huge interest in that crowd and i have stayed in close touch with them since then.
Learning Outcomes
This project is proving to be a transformative project for everyone involved. I learned a more deeply nuanced meaning of sustainability. For every industry that small farms are a part of, there is a more conventional, established industry. For example, truly pasture-raised poultry makes up a miniscule percentage of poultry in the nation. The rest of the poultry is within a well-established billion dollar industry. That means that the equipment has been refined to a point of extreme efficiency. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost to flock health, environmental health, farmer health, and customer health. As small scale farmers, we have the opportunity to learn from the positive elements of that industry and incorporate it into our more ethical, high-value farming operations. We can embrace the efficiencies to enhance our efforts toward a healthy, sustainable future. It has opened my eyes even more to the opportunities for growth through economizing labor through automation. Farming does not have to be extremely hard.
While these advancements are often costly for small farms that may not have the resources to adopt such efficiencies, we can change the way we think about these investments. For example, after seeing how much happier our staff members are, how my physical issues have disappeared, and how much money we're saving, I can more confidently assess the return on investment for these efficiencies. And because much of the benefit is not even financial, I know that much of the investment is for the well-being of our overall farm culture. Ultimately, yes, this can be assessed monetarily, but the true benefits run deep in the relationships between us as owners and our employees. They see that we value their efforts and we consider the investment into the infrastructure as an investment in our employees.
We have, over the first year of our project, overcome the barrier of extreme labor. While there's more work to be done to improve the system, I can confidently say that we are within reach of our ultimate goal of feeding poultry once per week without navigating challenges in between feedings. The remaining work that needs to be done is simplifying the bracing, fully eliminating moisture contact with the feed, painting the insides of the bins with graphite paint to eliminate feed bridging, and ensuring full charge on the lithium battery through cloudy and cold stretches. None of this work is overwhelming and it can all be easily done with time.
The advantages of implementing this type of project are extensive. In my opinion, it makes it possible to scale up a pastured poultry operation. I heard from a mentor that if we have problems in our enterprise now, when we scale up, our problems will only scale up, too. So, we can either accept the problem of excessive labor and keep hiring a new crew every season, or we can fix the problem and have staff members who are fully invested in the operation. I would not be able to grow the poultry business without this improvement. But now that we have automated feeders installed, I can see a strong future for the enterprise.
Of course, there are disadvantages, too. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not cheap to implement. All said and done, it costs about $7500 per coop. There is a decent return on that investment, primarily the retention of staff members (and the ability to take a vacation from time to time). Different coop styles will have different elements to navigate, too. Even after a full season of moving coops every day and improving the system, there's still work to be done to get it just right. So, it takes time to get things to where it's running flawlessly. But a season or two of commitment to the improvement will go a long way. We pretty much got it to be good enough for a while, which was fine, and then continued to modify things. So, the labor element can be overcome while continuing to improve. the point here is that it doesn't have to be perfect to eliminate the physical work. But it does have to be pretty good in order to avoid damaging existing infrastructure.
If someone asked for more information on this project, I would suggest that they take an honest look at their operation and determine whether their feeding system is just hard work that they've accepted or whether it's something that they enjoy doing. Few people will say it's something they enjoy. Once someone realizes that certain farm tasks have just been accepted as a standard, they can start to think about ways to improve. I would suggest that they never accept standards as permanent things. Standards are just stepping stones toward something better. Look to the conventional industries for improvements so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. you may realize that you only need to modify a small part of the wheel in order to make it work for your farm. I've spent countless hours talking to salespeople at farm suppliers. They are some of the most helpful people in the industry. They know everything that's available on the market, so a ten minute conversation about what you're doing and how you're trying to improve might lead to wildly impressive innovations, like an automated feeding system.