New lot of meat birds on the way

[pki]

Nice birds Gary, we started with layers a couple yrs ago, many good eggs, gone over to "local chicken", acceptable compromise between meat/eggs, family won't eat meat. Lost many to, dogs, possums, lizards, few to ignorance... Hoping I can get them to eat Tilapia. Pete

[GaryD]

Hi,

We processed the remaining birds from this batch. After carefully calculating the average weights of the birds (and the feed that they had consumed) we promptly lost the numbers......so we'll have to wait until next batch to revisit the cost per kg of the chicken meat that we had produced.

One thing is clear, meat quality was the best we've ever seen. This batch was fed on organic feeds....and the meat carried much less fat than the meat that we've grown on commercial rations. The meat is firm in texture and has a slightly different taste to regular chicken......probably because it contains less fat.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Last monday, we took delivery of our latest batch of meat birds. We started with 20 but lost a couple of them. It's not uncommon to lose one in a batch.

Like our previous batch, this lot will be reared on organic feed......and will free range.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Here's our latest batch of broiler chickens.....about four weeks old.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

We started a new batch of 20 meat chickens again this week.

These days, we produce all of our own chicken meat.

Gary

[JohnMc]

Are commercial growers in AU heavily dependent on antibiotics to maintain the flocks?

[GaryD]

Hi John,

The use of antibiotics in connection with broiler chicken meat is not something most chicken producers would care to discuss.

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation, however, admits.......

Antibiotic use is important in chicken meat production to ensure the overall health and well being of chickens. Only antibiotics approved by Australia’s regulatory authorities and administered in accordance with strict regulatory guidelines are used. The Australian Chicken Meat Federation recommends the use of antibiotics in farm animals in two important ways:

• therapeutic agents (used to treat the symptoms of a bacterial infection)
• prophylactic (preventative) agents (used to prevent disease occurring in healthy animals).

This quaintly worded spin means that broiler producers are advised to use antibiotics on chickens that are sick.......or on healthy chickens to stop them from becoming sick.

The ACMF is also at pains to point out that growth hormones have not been used in the Australian chicken industry for 40 years.

The FAO is a bit less coy in their wording......they refer to "prophylactic" use of antibiotics as antibiotic growth promoters.

In 2008, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation stated.....

Increased consumer pressure has forced the livestock industry to reduce the amount of antibiotic growth promoters used in animal feed. Following the European lead, the Australian Government appointed a Committee (The Joint Expert Technical Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance) in April 1998 to review the scientific evidence on the link between the use of antibiotics in the livestock industries and the emergence and selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their spread to humans. The Committee has presented evidence of such a link and outlined 22 recommendations, highlighting the need to have programs in place to reduce the overall use of antibiotics.

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation acknowledges that, even with preventive use of antibiotics, chicken mortality averages 4%.

From my reading of it, antibiotics are used by chicken producers largely because the conditions in which the chickens are kept are such that many of them would otherwise die from necrotic enteritis.

Gary

[JohnMc]

Thanks Gary, I was curious. The use of drugs is a problem here in the US. Maybe more so than AU.

[GaryD]

Hi John,

The use of antibiotics is only one issue associated with the consumption of factory-farmed chicken.

Researchers in the UK have confirmed that, as a foodstuff, chicken has diminished since the inception of intensive production.....having more fat and less of the vitamin and mineral content that the meat had prior to factory farming.

Factory-made chicken meat can also make you sick.

Check out this thread......Why we grow our own chicken meat.

Gary

[Pugo]

In the Philippines they don't use a lot of antibiotics in chicken production, but they also have a high mortality rate too. People are always trying to go into the chicken business and fail they seem to lose there entire flock to illness. The hot tropical warn does take it toll on the chickens.