Project Overview
Commodities
- Animals: poultry
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage, housing, animal protection and health, grazing - continuous, free-range, manure management, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, grazing - rotational, watering systems, winter forage
- Education and Training: display, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking
- Farm Business Management: new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, community-supported agriculture, marketing management, agricultural finance, value added
- Pest Management: biological control
- Production Systems: holistic management
- Soil Management: composting
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, analysis of personal/family life, sustainability measures
Summary:
The problems addressed included: being able to produce a chicken less prone to the heart attack and leg problems commonly seen in the standard Cornish Cross meat chicken, and establishing a local source for Western Wisconsin poultry producers to obtain quality chicks. The breed we selected for this project was the Corndel Cross developed by Timothy Shell of Mt. Solon, Virginia.
At the start of our project, there were 49 Wisconsin members of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (“APPPA Grit!,” Issue 23, Winter 2003). It was estimated that the majority of these producers purchased Cornish Cross chicks shipped in from out of state hatcheries. These chicks came from breeding stock raised for confinement poultry operations. Both factors can lead to significant problems. Shipping stress can cause a higher mortality rate and lower dressed weights resulting in lower producer profits. Confinement genetics can lead to death due to inactivity, heart attack, and leg problems.
We proposed that breeding, hatching and raising chickens on our farm would reduce the problems associated with shipping stress. Following the 9/11 tragedies and anthrax scares, there was concern as to whether shipping carriers would even transport poultry. Although this appears to be resolved, it is not inconceivable that this problem could resurface. During 2003, quarantines were placed on poultry in other states due to outbreaks of Newcastle disease and Avian Influenza. Producers who relied on these birds had orders postponed or cancelled. Should shipping cease even temporarily, it would negatively impact us and other local pastured poultry producers.
Project objectives:
The goal of this project has been to establish the first Wisconsin-based hatchery to produce organically raised chicks specifically bred for a pasture-based poultry production system.