permaculture

["Rich Blaha" <rich@mossbackfarm.com>]

Hi Toby

I'd discovered Bill's post a while back...he has some great points, 
especially regarding feeding human-quality grains to chickens, but I disagree 
about the manure loading and the humane aspect, if the procedure is done 
right.

Raising pastured broilers is VERY labor intensive...if the grass in a pen 
shows burning from the nutrient load, you aren't moving the birds often 
enough.  In some cases and some densities, that means moving them 2 or more 
times per day to spread the manure effectively.  The benefit of this, besides 
saving the pasture, is the birds consume more green feed, helping the taste 
and texture of the bird, and reducing feed costs somewhat.

We stopped raising pastured broilers 2 years ago...generally, a pasture site 
never had birds on it more than twice a year, and usually just once.  Even 
now, those sites are greener and lusher than adjacent sites that didn't get 
birds on them.  Our site is very nutrient deficient, so all the nutrients 
either absorbed into the soil, or were lost to volatilization (hopefully not 
too much of the latter), since there's no 'streaks' of green running downhill 
from those locations.

There is a high death loss in pastured poultry, higher than industrial 
production.  I think 5-10% death loss in the factory farms is expected, and 
with some predation exceptions, 10-15% was about our standard number.  The 
standard breed is very fragile, and doesn't like hot, wet, or cold 
weather...this limits the seasons that they can be effectively and humanely 
raised.

The birds did seem content, though, as much as a breed that is bred to lay 
around,  eat, and put on weight can be.  Chasing grasshoppers, each other, 
and pecking at goodies in the grass are all favored pastimes, after the most 
favored---laying in the feedtrough.

I guess the humane quotient is an individual choice.  Our loss was higher 
than in a factory, but the birds were happier.  Is that better?  I thought 
so, but your mileage may vary.

We stopped raising them when fuel costs got too high...since the organic feed 
is sourced from far away (the midwest at best, Brazil/Argentina at worst), 
the petroleum footprint was just to much, and the prices too high, to justify 
continuing.  If there were local sources of organic protein grown, we may 
have continued.  It was fun while it lasted, though.

It has spoiled me for chicken, though...I can't eat it anymore, even the 
so-called organic types.

Cheers

Rich
www.mossbackfarm.com/journal




>  Message: 8
>  Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:34:16 -0700
>  From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
>  Subject: [permaculture] critique of pastured poultry
>  To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
>  Message-ID: <46C5BFF8.2080608@patternliteracy.com>
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>  
>  I've always admired Joel Salatin's work with pastured poultry. But
>  here's a blog post from an organic chicken farmer who tried it and
>  thinks it's got some major flaws. I found it thought-provoking
>  
>  http://bbill.blogspot.com/2006/07/pastured-poultry-scam.html
>  
>  --
>  Toby
>  http://patternliteracy.com
>  
>  
>  
>