Pastured Poultry Talk

I have a conversation with Chrislyn Wood, DVM, about the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and pasture raised flocks. Dr. Wood is a veterinarian with USDA APHIS and she is involved first hand with HPAI monitoring and response efforts.  We cover a lot of ground, including historical observations, risk assessment, disease identification, and prevention. 

Greg Gunthorp joins the show to talk about his decision to step away from pasture raised chickens. Covid plays into the story, of course, but the challenges started long before this virus came to be front page news.  We also dig into some processing wisdom and reality. Greg talks consolidation and Bill Gates. We dig deep and cover a lot of interconnected ground.

Cynthia Capers, Heniscity Farm in Tennessee, shares her 20+ year journey from hobby chicken keeper to poultry farmer. Twenty years ago, the sight of six Black Australorps brought tears to her eyes. Today, she's serving her community through egg sales, chick sales, pullet sales, and community education. She's incorporated poultry into their rural bed and breakfast and has become an integral resource in her community.  As a black farmer reconnecting to the land and rediscovering her ancestral roots, the journey isn't easy, but Cynthia is right where she needs to be inspiring those around her. She brings the power of chickens to life. In the show we cover:  Her exposure to animals in an urban environment Incorporating chickens into the B&B Covid challenges Eggs as the answer to hunger Connecting to the land and honoring Mother Africa Importance of friends and support ...and more Resources:  Heniscity Farm on Facebook Nashville Scene Article: Black Farmers Feed Their Neighbors and Connect With Their Ancest

I answer a listener question, "How can I make my small laying hen flock more profitable?" With feedback from the community, insights from The Fighting Farmer, and personal experience, we dive deep into ways to prosper from your small flock of laying hens. The answer divides into three sections: management, pricing, and markets/marketing.  Ask your questions at https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/contact.   

Perdue acquires Pasturebird and becomes the biggest producer in the space. I unpack what it means on this episode and walk through some history. 

Listener Chris asks how to utilize an all-in/all-out pullet replacement strategy without duplicating infrastructure while maintaining egg production. To help answer the question, I share insights from Mark Harrison and Dave and Ginger Shields.  The simple answer to the Chris' question is that infrastructure is required to maintain production. Listen in as I discuss the details. 

In Pastured Poultry Talk episode 110, farmer Matt Steinman discussed how he used fermented feed as a solution to feed waste and fines. While fermentation can be a viable solution for some people, it's not the only way to deal with fines. The problem with fines accumulating in your feeders instead of the birds is that that the chickens miss key nutrients, and they waste feed. The lack of nutrients cause behavioral problems and reduced production. The feed waste costs you money. Soy-free feeds tend to contain more powder and compound the issues with fines. In this episode I detail a few approaches to dealing with the wasteful fine feed dilemma, which essentially comes down to not adding old feed on top of new feed and avoiding using a bulk feeder. When you use a bulk feeder, you trade convenience for management, and it can compound the problem with feed waste, fines, and overeating (which I don't cover in this episode).

Farmer Matt Steinman (Foothills Farm in Sedro-Woolley, Washington) and Dr. Louisa Brouwer (technical advisor on the trial) share the results of a SARE-funded trial that sought to understand the economic impacts of feeding fermented feed to laying hens. The trial compared a dry feed, wet feed, and a fermented feed and then determined the net difference across to the bottom line.

I close out the pastured poultry training series with a live streamed Q&A between Terrell Spencer from The Fighting Farmer and myself. We went live on Facebook and fielded questions from our listeners, and this episode of the podcast includes an edited version of that conversation. If you want to watch a replay of the stream, find it on YouTube. Before we work into the questions, I offer some thoughts on heritage poultry's potential role in pastured community. APPPA has recently started to focus on breeding specific topics and offers monthly livestreams on breeding. Check out APPPA's work here. We cover a range of topics on this episode including: Using a Poultry Man Plucker to improve processing efficiency Discussing value-added poultry products and ground chicken The number one resource for all new pastured poultry producers Spence shares some knowledge on chicken sausage, including a way to sell hearts for $10 a pound Canadians are welcome in APPPA Spence touches on some USDA processing facilit

When you put chickens or turkeys out on pasture, there are two fundamental questions you need to consider. Why pasture and how do you house the birds? If you fully grasp the why of the pasture model, you won't take shortcuts in your housing and implementation. I'm primarily talking about the foundational principle of movement to fresh pasture approach that pastured poultry requires. If you choose to build a strong foundation on the principles of pastured poultry, then your system becomes healthier and more capable of surviving challenges. There are a lot of companies that compromise the pastured poultry model today where fresh forage is replaced with access to more space. I spend a lot of time working through these issues in the podcast episode because it's important to start off with a clear vision, and that vision will inform your shelter approach. Pasture Shelter Considerations There are a near infinite number of designs and modifications you can make to a pastured poultry shelter. And if you g

Did you know a commercial meat chicken or turkey may spend up to 40% of it's life inside a brooder? Layers, by comparison, spend approximately 5% of their first lay-cycle in the brooder. For all our poultry species, the time in the brooder is critical to the long term health and productivity of the flock with an emphasis placed on the first three days of life. These first few days, especially for meat birds, is an important time for the bird to establish healthy eating patterns and appetites. Brooding, especially as you scale up, is typically the most obvious weak link in a pastured poultry production system, and that's really counter-intuitive. You may think that taking care of a chicken inside a building is easy because you alleviate the most weather and predator risks of pasture. Inside the brooder, your job is to raise a young chick or poult with an immature immune system, get it the proper nutrition, keep it comfortably warm, and maintain the brooder environment amid constantly changing weather. And

Feeding your pastured poultry is a huge topic, and it can quickly overwhelm you. As a beginner to pastured poultry, I provide nine tips for feeding your flock that can help you get off to the right start. I'll cover universal feeding advice as well as specific information for meat birds, layers, and turkeys. All this advice can summed up into a larger objective statement. Buy the highest quality (not the cheapest) feed you can and make it a mission to understand the nutrition requirements of each type of poultry you raise based on it's age. The episode covers the beginner level approach to selecting feed and doesn't dive into the actual nutrient levels. Request your Feed Guidelines Cheat Sheet at this link, and it will be emailed to you. The cheat sheet referenced in the podcast episode outlines how you can feed your flock. It primarily matches the feed type and protein level by the poultry species and age. Don't buy cheap feed Pasture's role in feeding your birds  Tips for Sourcing Feed buy from local inde

This episode has a downloadable worksheet to help you apply the concepts discussed in the podcast episode to your situation. Get it by email here. I assume that when it comes to choosing a breed of chicken for your pastured poultry flock, you will have a favorite breed. As you research birds, you'll make a list of potential options that would appear to be great birds. Finding information about chickens on the internet is easy; however, my goal is to give you a way to judge the economic impact on your pastured poultry business, not as a way to recommend one choice over another, but as way to set expectations and and calibrate your choice of chicken to your actual goals. Evaluating the Genetic Potential of Breeds Every single meat bird or laying hen you raise has a potential. As a manager, you either bring out that potential or you suppress it. We'll talk about how you can bring out the genetic potential of your flock in the following episodes. For now, know what the genetic potential of your chicken choices ar

Download the worksheet for this episode to help you apply the concepts discussed in the podcast episode. Get it by email here. One of the biggest mistakes pastured poultry growers make is that they make impulsive decisions, which often go like this. I think I'll raise some chickens, so I go to the nearest chick days and find some birds based on what the store employees tell me. Next thing I know, I'm trying to sell them, but I'm just throwing darts at all my questions and hoping it comes out ok. Obviously, I'm being a bit dramatic, but the pattern is clear enough to be cliché over my decade of time in the pastured poultry community. If you're just starting out with chick, I want you to be successful. If you've raised poultry in the past, but you're struggling with something along they way, I want you to be successful. This is part 1 of a multi-part introduction to pastured poultry raising. I'll focus on the fundamentals of breed, feed, brooder, pasture, processing, and planning. I've an awesome amount of mark

I've shared some Covid 19 corona virus updates via the APPPA channels in recent weeks, so I thought it was time to circle back to the podcast with an update. I cover a lot of ground, including how the Badger family is affected, how the pastured community is responding, supply concerns, and a few featured news items. In the face of any trial, crisis, and disruption to the norm, the defining moments  for each of us come based on how we recover and how act during the crisis. Many leaders, such as Greg Gunthorp, think we have an opportunity to shape the future based on a resilient local food production model. I agree, and that's where we should be placing an increasing amount of energy. Topics in this episode Badger Family Update Ready-to-Lay Pullet Demand Explodes Broiler demand is high Don't panic buy feed (or TP) Holding prices steady despite overwhelming demand Egg prices up nationwide Joel Salatin wants corona virus How you communicate on your platform matters How we respond is our defining moments We have

In episode 101 of Pastured Poultry Talk, Randy Kleinman mentioned Luke Groce and cited a very popular video that featured his range model. A lot has happened since that video was filmed on Luke's farm. I give Luke an opportunity to update us on his range model for raising pastured poultry because he's clearly thought about it deeply and is committed to a process that works for him. Resources: Pasture Raised Podcast Video: The Best pastured poultry system out there (this is the video quoted in the episode)  

There is no secret that pasture-raised chicken meat is more nutrient dense than non-pasture-raised chicken. More and more farmers are testing their products and posting the results for their customers and the world to see. Randy Kleinman, who farms with his family on Seelye Brook Farms in Anoka County Minnesota ran a two year study that compared a daily move chicken tractor to a day range chicken tractor. Over the course of the trial, he recorded key production numbers, including feed conversion, labor, and nutrition. The study was funded by a 2019 Minnesota Department of Agriculture AGRI Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant award. The first year of the trial compared a spring and fall batch of Cornish cross and the second year compared a spring and fall batch of Freedom Rangers. Each season collected data relevant to the production method. Randy designed the trial so that each production method would forage on the same amount of pasture over the course of the batch. The results Key takeaways from tria

My journey to 100 episodes of Pastured Poultry Talk started long, long ago. Celebrate the podcast milestone with me, as I recount the significant events in my life that led me to pastured poultry and and back to faith. I tried very hard to make decisions that would have denied me entry into pastured poultry. I've accumulated seemingly random skills and relationships that all come to bear witness to a destiny that was not of my own choosing. As you listen to this episode, I challenge you to reflect back on your last 10, 15, 20, or more years and record your story through the seemingly random relationships and events you've encountered. I find hope in my past, present, and future life through Psalm 16:11: "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

The Pastured Poultry Talk podcast is back in 2020 with an episode about label deceit, also known as greenwashing. I tie the USDA's updated label guidelines, the APPPA conference, and some recent greenwashing misidentifications from the pastured poultry community in the same discussion. It's increasingly clear (and not all that surprising) that not everyone has the same understanding about what pastured poultry is and why it's important. Marketing against misleading labeling claims requires clarity. In this episode, I attempt to provide some clarity so we can move forward in unison. USDA's Free Range is Synonymous with Pasture Raised Claim The Synonymous Claim: The following FSIS opinion is noted in the Federal Register announcing the updated label claim guidelines. Added information on the use of ‘‘Free Range’’ and synonymous claims (‘‘Free  roaming,’’ ‘‘Pasture Fed,’’ ‘‘Pasture Grown,’’ ‘‘Pasture Raised,’’ and ‘‘Meadow Raised’’) on labels of poultry products and the documentation needed to substantiate these

As a Pastured Poultry Talk listener, it's incredibly important to me that you know about the APPPA Conference in Jacksonville from January 19-21, 2020. This episode explains that the Professional Pastured Poultry Conference is and how it came to be. Find more information. Listen for a special offer.