1999 Annual Report for LNC99-147
A Comprehensive Educational Program to Teach Farmers and Other Agricultural Professionals How to Produce and Market Free-Range Poultry
Summary
Objectives of this project include:
1) Farmers and other agricultural professionals will be trained to produce, process and market free-range poultry, both chickens and turkeys. Workshops will be designed and conducted to teach farmers and others the American Free-Range System with emphasis on the holistic approach utilized at Locust Grove Farm.
2) Educational materials will be created and disseminated to enhance the training. A video will be produced which will give an overview of the Free-Range System developed at Locust Grove Farm. It will be used throughout the North Central region to introduce farmers and other agricultural professionals to the holistic American Free-Range Poultry System. The video will be a companion to the manual Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing, by Herman Beck-Chenoweth, the text upon which the workshops are based. The manual was produced through a SARE producer grant.
Industrialized agriculture has had an adverse impact on small family farms and rural communities. On-farm production and processing of free-range poultry marketed within the farmer's region can help reverse the trend. This project specifically addresses one emerging issue relevant to advancing the sustainability of agriculture: strengthening family-operated farms through the development of locally owned, value-added food systems. It also addresses the economic, environmental and social impacts of integrated crop and livestock systems.
A growing number of consumers want to buy locally produced, healthy food. But, farmers are currently unable to meet the demand. We will train farmers and their supporting agency personnel how to produce and market products which, we know from our own experience, consumers will purchase at premium prices. Free-range poultry enterprises throughout the region could greatly enhance the possibility of regenerating our rural communities and landscape.
The American Free-Range System is a holistic family farm scale system that can be utilized to raise up to 20,000 chickens per year with a potential $225,000 in sales. Free-range turkeys also command premium prices with potential net income of $17,000 per 1,000 birds.
Positive points of the American Free-Range System include:
Low initial investment of $1,000 to $25,000, depending on the quantity of birds produced.
Quick return on investment since chickens can be harvested 10 weeks after hatch.
Value can be added to corn and soybeans by feeding them to poultry rather than selling them as commodities.
The entire farm family can be gainfully employed within the system.
This system can be utilized on a small scale by young people still in school to generate enough capital to enable them to be fully employed upon graduation.
Manure generated helps close the fertility loop on the farm.
A strong market already exists for free-range poultry.
To widely disseminate information about the Free-Range System, eight half-day, interactive seminars will be conducted within the North Central region. Three participatory workshops, each three days long, will be conducted at Locust Grove Farms in southern Ohio. In each three-day, comprehensive workshop students will participants in both field and classroom experiences, which include poultry slaughter in a state approved facility.
The video will provide information valuable to farmers interested in producing and marketing poultry raised on pasture. The video will provide an overview of the three major pasture-based methods of poultry production currently used in the U.S. Regardless of the production method chosen by a farmer, the processing and marketing information contained in the video will be relevant and helpful.
All seminar participants will receive a copy of the video and the manual Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing, plus a one-year subscription to the journal Free-Range Poultry Forum. A copy of the manual and video, plus a subscription to the journal, will be presented to every state Extension office throughout the North Central region and to one sustainable agricultural organization in each of the 12 states.
We expect that 250 people will attend a half-day seminar and 50 farmers will participate in the three-day, hands-on workshops. All participants will learn about the potential economic, social and environmental impacts of grass-based poultry production, on-farm processing and direct marketing. Dissemination of manuals and videos to all state Extension libraries throughout the region will make this information available to all interested persons.
For more information:
Linda Lee
Resilience, Inc.
26328 Locust Grove Road
Creola, OH 45622
740-596-4379
740-596-3079 (fax)