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  • From: "Rich Blaha" <rich@mossbackfarm.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] critique of pastured poultry
  • Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:16:34 -0800

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
>
>
>
>




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