apppa grit! issue 62 2011 american pastured poultry ... · year and sent to members of apppa. to...

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association Issue # 62

In support of pastured poultry, Dr.

McNitt, an original member of APPPA, has authored several educational

publications with regard to pastured poultry production, including topics on

marketing, pens, and brooding. The Southern University also holds

workshops to help educate farmers on pastured poultry.

In 2006, YaSin and Elaine started with a batch of 50 broilers, and Dr. McNitt helped him do the processing by

providing on farm instruct ion, equipment, and support. YaSin recalls

that Dr. McNitt warned that he would

get one processing demo, and then he'd be responsible for processing from that

point forward.

BASIC OPERATIONS

Now, Yardbird Farm raises between 300-600 Cornish cross broilers per batch

with an average carcass weight of three to three-and-half pounds at seven

weeks of age. In a season, they processes approximately 6,000 broilers.

The brooder house is a metal car port

with sides that sits flush on a cement pad. A 19 inch tall pipe provides

ventilation. Inside, YaSin uses an Ohio

Issue 62

Mar – Apr

2011

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association

Producer Profile: YaSin Muhaimin, Yardbird Farm by Mike Badger

In This Issue:

2 Board of Directors

3 Editor’s Letter

4 President’s Message

Continued on page 4

15 Grit! Scratchings

17 Classifieds

18 Upcoming Events

19 Membership by State

23 Membership Renewal

6 APPPA Scholarship Award

7 Processing Equipment

9 Build PVC Drinker

10 Wine and Dine Your Chickens

11 Google Places Tutorial

APPPA GRIT!

For 17 days, the water remained eight feet deep in YaSin and Elaine Muhaimin's

home near London Canal in New Orleans. As the water receded from Hurricane

Katrina, so did the urban life they knew so well. Before the hurricane, YaSin was

a instructional coordinator that taught

computer science, math, and network administration for a school district in New

Orleans.

Following the hurricane, the school that employed YaSin no longer had a job for

him, and he was forced to retire. The Muhaimin's were left with an opportunity

to start fresh, whether they wanted it or not. So, they invested their savings in a

five acre farm in Zachary, LA and become mid-life farmers.

MID-LIFE FARMER SUPPORT

YaSin credits Dr. James McNitt, an

animal science professor at the Southern University Agricultural Research and

Extension Center, in Baton Rouge, LA, for his start in pastured broiler

production. According to its own website (www.suagcenter.com), the Extension

Center's mission is to “conduct statewide

basic and applied research and to disseminate information to the citizens of

Louisiana in a manner that is useful in addressing their scientific, technological,

social, economic and cultural needs.”

2 American Pastured Poultry Producers Association Issue # 62

APPPA Staff APPPA GRIT Editor: Mike Badger

16 Pine Run Rd

Hughesville, PA 17737

[email protected]

570-584-2309

APPPA Coordinator: Jody Padgham PO Box 87 Boyd, WI 54726 [email protected] 888-662-7772 The APPPA GRIT newsletter is published six times a year and sent to members of APPPA. To join, visit our website or write us. Information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate, but readers assume all responsibility for actions based on this information.

Eli Reiff (President)

Board member 2010-2012 Poultry Man

922 Conley Rd Mifflinburg, PA 17844

(570) 966-0769

Tom Wadson (Vice President) Board member 2009-2011

Wadsons Farm

PO Box SN 528, Bermuda, SNBX (441) 238-1862

[email protected]

Don Brubaker (Treasurer) Board member 2007-2012

The Fertrell Company POB 456

Bainbridge, PA 17502

(717) 426-3594 [email protected]

Jennie Watkins (Secretary) Board member 2009-2011

Ananda Hills Farm 553 Embody Road

Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 732-0111

[email protected]

Michael Akey

Board member 2010-2012 Green Akeys Family Farm

2301 Cross Section Rd Westminster, MD 21158


Greg Gunthorp Board member 2009-2011

Gunthorp Farms 435 N 850 E

La Grange, IN, 46761 (260) 367-2708

[email protected]

Keith O’Neal

Board member 2010-2012 Pleasant Prairie Meats

417 Road FF Satanta, KS


Brenda Ostrom

Board member 2009-2011

Mountain Meadow Farms PO Box 913

Mariposa, CA, 95338 (209) 966-8432 [email protected]

Val Vetter and Deb Aaron

Board Member 2010-2011 Piney Woods Ranch

PO Box 381

Winnsboro, TX 75494 (903) 629-3332

[email protected]

Joel Salatin Board member-at-large

Polyface Farm 363 Shuey RdSwoope, VA 24479

APPPA Board of Directors

Visit us online

www.apppa.org


for the support a group like APPPA

provides.

If you hold a seminar, field day, workshop, or some other meeting that targets pastured poultry producers,

please let APPPA know about it. Not only

will we publicize the event in the Grit, but we can provide you with support and

resources.

APPPA also held an annual meeting at SSAWG that was well attended. After

conducting some organization business, we went around the room and each

person provided a brief introduction. As you might expect, the crowd was filled

with producers of all levels. Processing was a universal pain point for producers,

regardless of size or location.

On page 7, David Schafer provides a range of processing and equipment

options based on the size of your operation.

Editor’s Letter As this issue hits mailboxes, the winter conference season will be replaced by

spring preparations. However, I thought I’d share some of the highlights from

APPPA’s busy conference season.

In January, APPPA exhibited at SSAWG and met a lot of great pastured poultry

producers and soon-to-be producers. The enthusiasm for pastured poultry, as

well as for APPPA was unmistakable.

APPPA Coordinator, Jody Padgham summarized SSAWG like this, “I think

some of the best parts were hearing all the great plugs for APPPA, and seeing

the enthusiasm in people's eyes as they learned that there was a group of folks

out there ready and willing to share

poultry knowledge.”

The green APPPA book Raising Poultry on Pasture: Ten Years of Success was an absolute success and in demand.

That tells me that people are not only

willing to consider the pastured poultry production model, but they are eager

APPPA members enjoying a dinner at SSAWG. Starting at the bottom-left of the table and working clockwise:

Tom Wadson, Mike Badger, Brenda Ostrom, Kathleen and Eli Reiff, Michael Akey, and Jody Padgham.

Continued on page 14


Profile continued from page 1 President’s Message

Greetings from the beaut i fu l Bu f fa lo

Valley! I experienced one of the best birth-

days I ever had! I re-ceived 28 birthday

cards and phone calls anywhere from the Deacon in our church to Jennie

Watkins in Washington and Tom Wad-

son in Bermuda, all because I turned half a century old.

The SSAWG Conference and APPPA an-nual meeting are now history, as well

as our local PASA conference, resulting

in new friends and reunions of past friends.

This is the time of year that we collect maple sap. I don't now how long it will

run into the spring. We have thirty taps

out, and so far, we have a little more than three gallons of syrup to show for

our efforts. Sweet!

We are meeting with a contractor about raising broiler cockerels. They

would need about 360 head per week. They would supply shavings, gas, feed,

and hauling. The broilers would be processed at a fully inspected plant and

then go to Whole Foods. The thing that makes me leery is that they have to be

raised according to Global Animal Part-nership (GAP) rules. I wonder if any-

body else has any knowledge in that

line. The GAP guidelines specify things like no rat poison, no leg hold traps, no

tying the dog, and of course, bio-security.

We now have 20 lambs and still have a

lot of big ewes.

It's time to get your brooder house cat and rat proof!

Eli Reiff

APPPA Board President

brooder. The Ohio brooder was

developed and publicized by the Ohio Experiment Station in the early 1940's.

The brooder is a rectangular box built on legs. As the chicks grow, the legs can be

blocked up to allow the chicks to get under the brooder where it's warm.

Each end of the brooder contains a heat

lamp. The brooder design more evenly distributes the heat ensuring a more

controllable temperature. The chicks are able to self-regulate their heat needs by

freely moving in and out of the warm brooder.

At about three weeks, the chicks move to pasture pens. In the beginning, YaSin started with a cattle panel hoop house,

but now he has moved to a lighter weight PVC pen. The hoop house has

been re-purposed as a greenhouse.

The PVC pens are 12'x12' and are covered with recycled billboard material.

The lightweight pens are very easy to push across the pasture. In the pastures,

YaSin grows rye grass and clover; he

does not use any synthetic fertilizer or chemicals.

In addition to the five acres on Yardbird Farm, YaSin has access to an additional

19 acres of neighboring properties,

including a few acres of his brother.

YaSin plans to add some red broilers and geese to the poultry operation. He’s also exploring year-round production.

PROCESSING

All processing is done at an on-farm processing facility that the Muhaimin's assembled for approximately ten

thousand dollars. The processing building is a prefabricated shed that was

purchased from Lowe's. All evisceration

and processing happens inside the building. A Featherman scalder and


plucker are setup outside the building

on a cement slab, under the cover of a roof. Otherwise, the scalding and

plucking happens in an outdoor environment. The kill cones are setup in

the grass.

After processing, YaSin prepares his chickens for sale by vacuum sealing

them. The packages of whole and half chickens are labeled and ready for sale.

The feathers and offal are composted.

Yardbird Farm processes under USDA exemptions. In Louisiana, facilities

processing fewer than 20,000 birds a year are inspected by the Louisiana

Department of Agriculture and Forestry's Meat and Poultry Division.

HALAL CHICKEN

A halal processed chicken means it's

permissible for Muslims to eat because it was processed according to a set of

rules outlined in Islamic law. To qualify as halal, the following four conditions

must be met.

A prayer must be said before slaughter.

The chicken cannot be stunned.

The chicken must be slaughtered

by hand with a sharp knife by a Muslim or a person of the

scripture (Jew or Christian).

The windpipe, esophagus, and jugular are cut. It's not halal to

sever the spinal cord.

As poultry processors know, cutting the jugular allows the heart to continue to

pump the blood, draining it from the chicken. Draining the blood is a

requirement for halal chicken.

MAXIMIZING MARKETS

Yardbird Farm has a standing order of 100 birds a month for a local store. The

Muhaimin's are also a favorite vendor at the Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton

Rouge where they sell organic produce,

broilers, and eggs.

YaSin says they sell out of approximately 200 dozen eggs in the first thirty

minutes of market.

The Muhaimins have developed several chicken products that sell very well. In

addition to selling whole chickens, YaSin has developed a chicken sausage that he

sells to market customers. The chicken sausage evolved from the boneless,

skinless breasts that he sold because a

survey of his customers pointed to a demand for chicken sausage. So, the

breasts evolved into sausage.

More recently, YaSin started selling whole pecan-smoked broilers at the Red

Stick Farmers Market for $15 a bird. According to YaSin, the chickens are in-

demand and they move quickly.

The chicken feet are saved and sold to the ethnic markets.

LOSSES

When asked to put a number on his losses, YaSin estimates his normal loss

rate at about four to eight percent. He quickly followed with “Louisiana used to

have good weather,” implying that

protecting his flock from the elements is a challenge.

YaSin lost a lot of chickens by moving them outside in bad weather. When

moving chicks from the brooder to

pasture, it pays to hold them in the brooder for a few extra days if the

weather is bad.

Yardbird Farm has also faced some heavy predation from domestic and wild

animals. YaSin recounts a dog kill that took 100 chickens and 8 ducks in a

single night. He also had to deal with the other “normal” predators – hawks, owls,

raccoons, and possums. To curb the



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The APPPA Board awarded the 2011 Scott and Marilyn Jondle Education fund

to Dean and Kim Zimmerman of Coulee View Family Farm. The $500 award will

help the Zimmermans offset the costs of attending conferences, learning new

skills at workshops, and purchasing educational resources to help launch

their new farm enterprise.

The Zimmermans plan to attend the Midwest Organic and Sustainable

Education Service (MOSES) conference in February 2011. The scholarship funds will

help them publicize efforts to get a poultry processing plant started in

southwest Wisconsin that is focused on

pastured poultry, animal welfare and organic poultry.

At the MOSES conference, the Zimmermans plan to attend workshops

and seminars that help them start

growing some of their own poultry and hog rations. They are particularly

interested in listening to Jeff Mattocks, a poultry nutritionist with Fertrell and

APPPA business member.

By attending Michael Fields Agriculture Institute (MFAI) workshops, the

Zimmermans will continue to network and promote their efforts to start a

processing plant in southwest Wisconsin. They will also attend workshops that

focus on new farm enterprises.

The Zimmermans have started a small, on-farm hatchery for slow growing

broilers. To help support the hatchery efforts, they plan to attend the pullorum

tester seminar through the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.

Rounding out their educational materials,

the Zimmerman’s plan to order a couple of audio CDs from Stockman Grass

Farmer that focus on Metro Buying Clubs to help them determine if metro buying

clubs are a viable option for their farm. The Zimmermans plan to purchase the

latest edition of Joel Salatin's Pastured

Poultry Profits so they can apply the updated turkey shelter design to their

operation.

We have started a small, on-farm hatchery for slow growing broilers. We

will attend the upcoming Pullorum testing seminar in Richland Center to

support this new enterprise.

Dean and Kim Zimmerman are APPPA members and raise pastured chicken,

turkey, geese, pork, and lamb on their farm in Wauzeka, WI. You can learn

m o r e a b o u t t h e m a t www.couleeviewfarm.com.

The Scott and Marilyn Jondle

Scholarship honors the life of the Jondles, who started farming as second

careers. Scott was an active APPPA board member when he and his wife,

Marilyn, tragically passed.

APPPA is the only organization dedicated to serving the needs of those interested

in raising poultry on pasture. The mission of the organization, incorporated

in 1997, is to help members become better pastured poultry producers

through sharing information and networking.

For more information about APPPA, visit www.apppa.org or call 888-662-7772.

Zimmerman Family Receives

APPPA Scholarship


What equipment do I need for processing?

The answer depends on how much poultry

you plan to process. No matter what size, the three basic processing jobs are killing,

scalding and picking. For killing the birds, you need an adequate restraint. for

scalding, you need hot water. For picking, you need agitation. Let’s start small and

work our way up.

A FEW ROOS - SCROUNGE

If you just have a handful of roosters that need to go, you can get by with

scrounging. Have a friend restrain the roosters with two hands around the body

while you carefully slit the carotid arteries while holding the head. Have the water

ready at 150 degrees and dip the roo up

and down, jiggling while in the down

position and draining for three to four seconds in the up position.

Test for readiness by pulling wing feathers. When they easily release, wipe

the feathers off with your hands and pull

reluctant feathers with fingers and tweezers. Singe if there are a lot of hairs

left on.

Cost $0. Time: 3 birds/man hour.

TWENTY TO FIFTY BROILERS – BEG,

BORROW, STEAL

This could represent several days work for two people if you try to scrounge to get it done. So look hard for a unit near

you to borrow or rent. Restraining kill cones can be fashioned from riveted light

sheet metal, highway safety cones, and

buckets. None of these are “stand alone” and will require your vigilance to prevent

the bird from backing out.

Proper restraint is a huge part of humane slaughter and should be taken seriously.

Consider purchasing one cone to see the difference.

Having enough water for two birds gets important at this volume. There are lots

of turkey broiler units available for $60 -

$90 that would be a good investment at this processing level. Keep two

thermometers handy and be exact about the scald temperature, as it will make

the biggest impact on final quality of your birds. A Coleman camp stove

doesn’t have the BTUs for this job. Find or buy a serious burner, such as the

turkey fryer. Add as much water as is

removed after every few birds.

Picking may still be done by hand if you have a big crew and your scald is right


What Equipment do I need for Processing? By David Schafer

Continued on page 8


on. If you can find a table top model this

reduces picking time from 10 -15 minutes down to 3-5 minutes per bird.

Again, you may have to singe if the scald is not accurate.

Cost: $30-cone, $69-turkey fryer, $200-

used table top picker; total $299. Time: 4-6 birds/ man hour.

Fifty to Two Hundred Birds – Time for Creativity

You have crossed over into the business scale unless you have a really big family. Processing may look like the biggest

hurdle to you and you would be right; it

is. This is where the do-it-yourselfers get creative.

We [Alice and I] thought we could do this volume with a tabletop picker, but we

quickly realized otherwise and went

shopping. We wound up with a PickWick dinosaur. It was a four-feet in diameter

plucker for $750, plus a 10-hour round trip drive. It turned out to be too big to

pick four birds well, so we tried to ramp up to eight and our scald and dunk got

crazy. Learning curve.

You have many more options now than we did 15 years ago, but you must have

restraining cones, a good scald system, and an automatic plucker.

Option 1 – Do It Yourself

It’s not rocket science. My Amish

neighbor made the first trash barrel tub

plucker back in 1995. Now , a very elegant set of plans is available courtesy

of Herrick Kimball, Anyone Can Build A Tub Style Plucker. If you have access to

a spare ¾ or 1 horse motor and are reasonably handy, you have the major

obstacles out of the way.

Typical costs range from $300 to $700 to build the tub plucker and a large and

energetic support group awaits you online to answer your questions and help

you with parts. Herrick now also has plans for a home grown scalder.

Cost: Books $50, 2 – 4 cones $70-$140, Scalder $150 - $400, Plucker $300 - $700. Total cost $570 - $1290.

Time 20 hours building, 6-10 birds/ man

hour.

Option 2 – Rent, Share, Custom process

One way or another you’ve got to have equipment. Rental units are becoming

increasingly available and have the

advantage of the owner’s knowledge and experience for you to tap into.

If no rental units are within a couple hours drive, how about partnering with

another farm in a similar quandary as

you? You’ll cut the cost in half and simply have to coordinate processing



For a relatively low cost, you can

build your own drinking system for broilers, layers, or other small

animals. Using PVC pipe and a float valve, you can have a gravity flow

drinker that will provide ample water supply to your livestock. If

you have some left over four inch PVC pipe available, all you'll have

to buy is a couple of end caps, J

hooks, and a float valve.

I started with 4 inch PVC schedule 40 pipe; after building it, however,

I realized you could certainly use NDS pipe without any difficulty. I

purchased a two foot length of PVC

Schedule 40, which is expensive compared to NDS.

To assemble, cut the 4 inch PVC pipe to

whatever length you want.

Next, cut a portion out of the middle-top

half of the pipe that is long enough to allow as many birds to drink at one time

as you want. Be careful to leave material on each end of the pipe in order to be

able to glue the end caps to the pipe.

Attach the end caps to the pipe with

cleaner and PVC cement. On one of the end caps drill a ¾ inch hole slightly

above center in order to insert the float valve on the end. That pretty much does

it for the assembly of the drinker.

My parts list included:

One two foot length of schedule 40

PVC pipe

Two 4 inch PVC end caps

One ¾ inch x 3/8 inch brass tubing adapter (to attach float valve to a 5 Gallon pail)

Two J hooks

One float valve from Cornerstone Farm Ventures

The only other thing you have to do is

connect the tubing to the pipe adapter, and the attach it to a 5 gallon pail. Fill

with water and you're already go.

You can use the J Hooks to set the

Build Your Own PVC Drinker By Jim McLaughlin



INCREASE EGG PRODUCTION AND

BROILER GROWTH

While on the lookout for fun poultry information, I came upon a Popular

Mechanics article from April 1912, that advocated feeding laying hens wine as a

way to increase their egg production.

A French chicken farmer claims that a small quantity of wine increases the egg-

producing capacity of hens to a considerable degree. He divided a flock

of 16 month old hens into two groups of six. Each group was fed exactly the same

amount of grain and bread.

However, the bread given to one group was soaked with wine. In the four

months of the test, the wine fed hens laid 148 eggs more than the hens that

were not fed wine.

The test was repeated using eight month

old hens of the same breed. Again, a

flock of 12 hens was used. This time the wine-fed hens won by 87 eggs.

Being a bit skeptical and thinking that the motivation for the article was to sell

more wine to farmers, I asked Jeff

Mattocks, a poultry nutritionist with Fertrell Company to weigh in. Jeff

supports the wine-fed premise, saying he advocates feeding vinegar to hens

because it achieves the same results.

The vinegar (or wine) increases the chickens ability to break down

carbohydrates and fats, which leads to better digestion of feed. As a result of

the enhanced digestion, broilers grow better and hens lay more.

You can mix apple cider vinegar into the

chickens water at a rate of at least one ounce per gallon. I imagine the wine

mixture would similar.

This sounds like a fun research project. Any takers?

Wine and Dine Your Chickens By Mike Badger


Be Found with Google Places By Mike Badger

It's no secret that people have increasingly replaced the yellow pages

with an Internet Search, and if you can't be found with an Internet search, you

could be missing new customer opportunities. Of course, the business

here is your farm, and being found helps

you sell your pastured broilers, turkeys, eggs, and other products.

You don’t need to use the Internet or computers in order for potential

customers to find you via an Internet

search. For example, I can search Google for “poultry dressing Mifflinburg pa” and

find Eli Reiff’s business listing, as seen in the following image.

Eli is not a computer user, and he doesn’t use the Internet. Yet, here is his

business listing on Google. Eli is an

established business and the online search engines have done a good job

(depending on your perspective) of incorporating information from all kinds

of print sources, including phone directories.

I’m going to show you how to get your

farm listed on Google Places, so that you can increase your visibility and attract

more customers when someone in our community searches for the products and

services we offer. This tutorial will focus on Google, because Google has become

synonymous with Internet search.

You should also note that if you do not have a website for your farm, the service

we're about to talk about can act as a

rudimentary website. Even though these listings are akin to a yellow page ad, you

can describe your farm business in more detail, and best of all, the Google Places

listings are free.

If you are not a computer or Internet user, a trusted friend, neighbor, or local

marketer (though a marketer will likely charge for the service) could work

through these steps on your behalf.

As we work through the tutorial, I'm going to use

Google's terminology of “business” instead of farm.

That way the information I describe will match up with

what you see on your computer screen.

G o t o h t t p : / /www.google.com/places and follow the Places for

Business link. You will need to sign in with your Google

Account or create a Google

Account, if you don't have one.

Click the List Your Business button.

You will be prompted for a telephone

number.

Select your Country from the drop-down

list and enter your business Phone

Number.

Next, click the Find Business Information button, and Google will

search it's site index to see if it already has a listing for your phone number. If



Google finds a business that matches the

phone number, you will have a chance to claim it. If Google does not find a

business with your phone number, it will automatically display a blank page so

you can enter the details of your business.

Though you can enter so much more,

you must enter at least the business name, street address, city, state, zip,

main phone number, and category. Note, the main phone number you enter will be

publicly visible. This is the number of your farm.

After you enter your business information, click the Submit button. Google will prompt you with a verification

method.

If you're a new listing, you'll need to verify by postcard, which will take

approximately two to three weeks to arrive. If you claim an existing entry, you

may be able to verify by phone number.

Click the Finish button and wait for your verification code.

BUSINESS VERIFICATION

When you receive the verification code,

go back to Google Places, login with your Google Account, and then enter your

code to claim your business.

The verification process gives Google some reasonable assurance that you are

entitled to speak on behalf of the business, and they will treat you as an

authoritative source of information about that business listing. This means that

you can now edit your business listing to add a website, photos, videos, coupons,

special offers, operating hours, and business categories.

In essence, you can create a mini-website with your Google Places listing. If you aren’t willing to invest the money

to build a proper website, this is a down

and dirty approach that would get you by

for a while.

I'll offer one word of warning regarding the updating of information. If you change the business name, the address,

or the phone number on the listing,

Google will have to re-verify the listing. You will lose access to the listing and will

be unable to make changes to the listing until the re-verification is complete. So,

complete those items right, the first time.

VISIBILITY IS KEY

Now, when someone near your location

searches for the products you offer, your listing will display towards the top of the

Google Search results.

The key benefit is visibility.

Using your Google Places business listing, you can attract the attention of a searcher and you have at least three

ways to turn that visibility into a lead for

you. Using the listing itself, the person may call, request driving directions, or

visit your website, if you have one listed.

ANALYZING THE TRAFFIC REPORTS

After you verify your listing, you will be able to log in to your Google Places

account and view your listing activity, which primarily consists of impressions

and actions.

An impression is simply how many times your business listing showed up in the

search results.

Actions may include clicks to your website, clicks for driving directions, or clicks for more information about your

business.

The clicks for driving directions will tell you where the person requested driving

directions from. This may help you



determine if there are opportunities to

increase more marketing efforts in a given community.

You will also be able to see the actual search terms that triggered your listing

to display. If you have an existing

website, it's a always a wise move to pay attention to keyword research, which

tells you what phrases your customers use to find you when searching for

information.

And the research doesn't get much better than the biggest search engine in

the world telling you exactly what words people used to trigger your listing. You

can use this information to make sure your website is optimized correctly. The

buzzword here is search engine optimization (SEO).

For the marketer looking for an edge in the market place, all of these stats provide some valuable information. Your

job, and it can be challenging, is to interpret the information into actionable

items.

OTHER OPTIONS

Google is the place to start, but Yahoo! and Bing also offer local business listings.

The Yahoo! listing I tried to create for my farm was denied because my address

was not identified as a business address.

Your results may vary.

About: Mike Badger is the APPPA Grit! Editor with a background in

I n t e r n e t m a r k e t i n g , communications, and website

management.

drinker on the ground. Keep in mind

that the birds will defecate in the drinker, if it is flat on the ground.

Remember to always keep drinker and feeders at the height of the birds back.

Total cost of the drinker is $26.75.

2 end caps $4.00.

1- 4”x2’ PVC pipe $6.50.

2- J hooks $2.25.

Float valve $14.

If you have PVC pipe left over from

another project you wouldn’t have to spend as much buying a short piece.

The drinker can be as long as you like and can be adjusted up or down for

different age birds.

Cornerstone Farm Ventures can be

reached at 607.334.9962 or www.cornerstone-farm.com.

Drinker continued from page 9

http://www.cornerstone-farm.com


Editor’s Letter from page 3

Dealing with state regulations is quite

another story and that was definitely a dominant topic at SSAWG. It seems the

best strategy for dealing with processing regulations is to be informed, stay

persistent, and seek support from your community members.

At the APPPA booth at SSAWG, we heard

the frustrations of an untold number of producers regarding processing. By the

time the conference closed on Saturday, however, we were able to connect

groups of people with common processing miseries, so they can pursue

a solution together.

PASA

APPPA also attended the PASA Conference in State College, PA. Our

booth was situated on the second floor of the conference, next to Featherman and

Cornerstone Farm Ventures. Once

conference attendees realized there was a second level of exhibitors, people

began to steadily visit the APPPA booth.

Eli Reiff, is somewhat of a chicken rock star in central Pennsylvania, and his

introduction to pastured poultry workshop was attended by over 100

people. Eli’s a good book salesman, too.

In 2012, APPPA will hold its annual

meeting at PASA in State College. The board voted and passed that motion at

its last meeting in SSAWG. Mark your calendars and make some plans to join

us.

THE GREAT AMERICAN PLUCK-OFF

At SSAWG, David Schafer (Featherman) and Eli Reiff (Poultry Man) made

tentative plans to hold "The Great American Pluck-Off" sometime in the

next year or two. The two hatched the idea as a way to promote pastured

poultry, publicize APPPA, and have a bit

of fun.

David and Eli are both long-time business associates and friendly competitors. However, it's clear that

pluckin' rights are on the line. David was

lobbying for a Missouri based pluck-off while Eli was eyeing PASA as a possible

stage. I vote Bermuda.

The details of the competition remain fuzzy. Stay tuned for more details.

Mike Badger

APPPA Grit! Editor

From left to right: David Crank, Jody Padgham, and Michael Akey present a workshop at SSAWG.


Grit! Scratchings

ON MOVING CHICKS TO PASTURE

“If it's too cold for my wife Kathleen to sleep outside, it's too cold for those little

white birds to sleep outside,” says Eli Reiff to a standing room only crowd at

the PASA conference. Eli was presenting a pastured poultry 101 workshop and

spent considerable time talking about

moving the chicks from the brooder to the grass.

Eli cautions you to watch the weather and hold the birds in brooder if the

weather looks bad. Springtime in the

north means extreme day and night temperature ranges and cold rain. Let

the weather pass.

APPPA EMAIL TROUBLES

The APPPA email addresses were experiencing delivery problems in

February. If you sent an email to either [email protected] or [email protected]

(Coordinator) and did not receive a response, we apologize for the

inconvenience. Please resend your email.

A N N U A L M E M B E R

DIRECTORY

The May/June issue of the

Grit! will feature the annual member directory

listing.

The member directory lists APPPA members by state

and can be a great networking opportunity for

producers who want to connect with other local

p a s t u r e d p o u l t r y producers.

Inclusion in the printed

directory is voluntary, and you must opt-in to the

listing. So you if you were not included in

last year’s member directory, and wanted to be, don’t forget to update your

preference. Send an email to [email protected] or contact the Grit! Editor

(see page 2 for contact details).

ANCONA DUCKS FOR EGGS

Jenny Watkins posted the following message on the APPPA ProPlus discussion

list:

“After reading a VERY INTERESTING book this month The Resilient Gardner: Food

Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe PhD I am seriously

considering ducks. The duck she favors is the Ancona, which she describes as the

best layer of the medium breeds, up to 270 eggs/yr.”

Many list members responded favorably to

ducks in general and the Ancona specifically. The Ancona duck is a dual

purpose heritage breed, pictured here.

Ancona Ducks. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


predation, he installed electric poultry

netting.

GIVING BACK

YaSin and Elaine give back to their community by hosting educational programs for youth. They enjoy the

opportunity to help young kids

understand the role that agriculture plays in their lives.

YaSin will often ask a group of kids, “Where does corn from?” The students,

while standing in a field of corn, will reply

with the stereotypical answers: “From the store and “From a can.”

After they take a taste of that corn, however, the connection lasts.

WE'RE ALL FARMERS

In wrapping up his presentation at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG), YaSin offered

this advice to the audience. “This is not a hobby. We're farmers. Producers. Don't

let anyone, including the USDA

Secretary, tell you any different. We're not in competition with commercial

poultry. Our customers wouldn't eat commercial poultry anyway.”

Profile from page 15

Broiler & Layer Chicks Ready-to-lay Pullets

Equipment/Incubators

Fertile Eggs

266 E. Paletown Road, Quakertown, PA. 18951 Ph.: 215 - 536 - 3155 www.moyerschicks.com Fax: 215 - 536 - 80 34 [email protected]

APPPA - STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA) is a nonprofit educational and

networking organization dedicated to encouraging the production, processing, and marketing of poultry raised on pasture.

APPPA exists to facilitate the free flow of

creative ideas. Member producers are encouraged to consider all poultry species and all pasturing models,

assuming personal responsibility for adapting ideas and models presented through APPPA.

APPPA passionately embraces humane, people-friendly, environmentally-enhancing, pasture-based production models. While we respect the freedom of

others to engage in industrial confinement factory farming, we believe our approach is superior.

APPPA assists both producers and consumers to transact business with as little government intervention as possible. APPPA does not

discriminate in membership or programs based on the business size of producer or consumer. Realizing

that production models must be profitable to be

successful, APPPA's interests include processing,

packaging, cooking, marketing, and any other

topics related to pastured poultry enterprises.

APPPA's world vision is to see pastured poultry adopted as the model for environmentally,

emotionally, and economically sensible poultry production. This vision includes decentralized food systems, farmstead-sized processing, and as much

interaction as possible between producer and consumer.

(Adopted by the APPPA Steering Committee, August 27, 1997)


SHRINK BAGS FOR SALE

Size:10x16”. Material: 55 micron high barrier, arc cut bottom/top. Cost was:

$199/1000 (Sold only by the thousand at this time.).

Freight cost: FREE in Northeast. Pay-

ment: Check or money order.

Tim Koegel

Windy Ridge Natural Farms

POB 1162, Alfred, NY 14802

607.587.9684

[email protected]

PICK-UP POINTS FOR SCRATCH AND

PECK FEEDS

Scratch and Peck Feeds available at the following pick up points:

North Seattle, WA

W Seattle, WA

Olympia, WA

Tacoma, WA

Sacramento, CA

Please visit our website or call 360-318-

7585 for more info.

www.scratchandpeck.com

FREE CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

Reach pastured poultry producers in the U.S, Canada, and Bermuda. Sell your i t e m s , p l a c e w a n t e d a d s ,

advertise employment opportunities, and

more.

Grit Classifieds are free for members; $0.25 per word for non-members. To place an ad, email [email protected] or

call (570)584-2309.

EGG WASHER FOR SALE

New Sink top unit scrubs eggs with hot water and brush. 28 eggs per minute

max. Suitable for a 1000 layer

flock. Made in USA of as much US con-tent as possible. $1830 plus shipping

www.gibsonridgefarms.com. (740) 698-3330 (Ohio).

Classifieds

Advertise with APPPA

Reach pastured poultry producers of all sizes with a 1/4 page ad in the APPPA GRIT.

6 issues for $200

Return the membership application on page 23 or contact [email protected] for

more information.

APPPA does not endorse Grit advertisers or their products/services.

Featherman Equipment

Offers Free Rental Listing

for any Poultry

Processing Equipment

Email Featherman what you’ve got for rent, how much you charge, where you are located and your contact info. They

will post the listing on their website at www.featherman.net.

Check the listing if you are looking for equipment to rent.

David Schafer, owner of Featherman, says:

“We are trying to make entry into the poultry business a lot easier for

folks today than it was for us 15

years ago.”

Email your info to [email protected]

or call 660-684-6035

http://www.scratchandpeck.com

http://www.gibsonridgefarms.com/


Upcoming Events

Coop Construction-April 6, 2011. The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

will hold a field training to cover mobile poultry housing. Contact Sam Anderson

f o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a t [email protected] or (978) 654-

6745.

HLW Acres 9th Annual Poultry Program—May 21, 2011 from 8:00 am

to 5:00 pm. The program will be held at 1727 Exchange St. Attica NY 14011 585-

591-0795

This year’s main speaker will be Peter McDonald of Pasture Pride Farm Romulus

NY. Pasture Pride is a diversified 220 acre pasture based farm that raises

11,000 meat chickens, 120 beef, 200

lambs, 400+ turkeys, 90 hogs, 250+ layers per year. Peter will present his

program on how these multi species are grown on pasture, and how they are

marketed to both retail and wholesale customers though out New York State.

Also Dave Snyder from ADM Alliance

Nutrition Inc. will be here to talk about nutrition and feed quality for poultry.

Brian Fleischman from Wyoming County

Chamber of Commerce and Wyoming County Tourist promotion will discuss

upcoming agricultural programs and the benefit of chamber memberships.

Pre- paid registration of $45 per person

or $80 for 2 people is requested by May 11 2011. After this date the price will

increase $20 per person. For more information call Hermann and Laura

Weber at 585-591-0795

Share your events! Conferences, events, meetings, and field days happen

year round, in all parts of the country. Share your events with APPPA members,

email that event to [email protected] or call Mike at (570) 584-2309.

Processing from page 8

dates. Or, better yet, do your birds

together and help each other.

The third possibility is to purchase equipment and pay it off rapidly through

custom processing and/or renting to others. If you are already good at

gutting this is a real viable alternative as you can charge $2 to $4/bird depending

on your location and pay off your entire investment in little more than a thousand

birds.

Cost: Rental $100 per day, 6-15 birds/ man hour.

Share $1800 - $2500, 6 – 20 birds/man

hour.

Custom process - $3600 - $5000, 6 – 20 birds/man hour.

Option 3 – Purchase the plucker

Any dang fool can make water hot, it’s the feather removing gizmo that you

absolutely have to make, borrow, or buy. At this level of production the cheap

Chinese imports found on Craig’s list are viable.

Cost: 2 - 4 cones $70 - $140, Scalder

$69 - $400, Plucker $400 - $750. Total cost - $539 - $1290.

Time: 6 – 10 birds/man hour.

Option 4 – Go all in

If you’ve done the homework and have a market, you know pastured poultry is the

rock star of health food and going straight up in popularity. Buy the best

equipment you can afford and expect to grow into it.

Two Hundred to Twenty Thousand Birds – Shop in GRIT!

This is the threshold that justifies purchasing a turnkey set of equipment.

Look at the suppliers in this newsletter


for the options available. At this level,

you pay back your equipment costs in one to three years. Plus the rental and

custom processing options are available to you to reduce that payback time if you

desire.

Cost - $3500 - $7500. Time 6 – 25 birds/man hour.

Over Twenty Thousand Birds – Quick Kick!

If you’re over 20,000 birds, drop back and quick kick; you’ve gone too far. Read the GRIT cover to cover and come

back to human scale farming with us.

David Schafer has raised pastured poultry since 1993 and started the

Featherman Equipment business in 1999.


DDOTSONOTSON FFARMARM

ANDAND FFEEDEED Distributors of Fertrell

Poultry Nutri-Balancer and the complete line of

Fertrell Products.

Also Available :

Certified Organic Hay Dotson Farm and Feed

2929 N. 9th Street Rd.

Lafayette, IN 47904

Ph 765-742-5111 cell 765-404-9826

Fax 765-429-5601

Fertrell

Palmetto Pigeon Plant


Success With Baby Chicks (2003) by Robert Plamondon 155

pages, $15.95

The Dollar Hen (1909) by Milo Hastings 250 pages,

$18.95

Genetics of the Fowl (1949) by F. B. Hutt. 590 pages,

$44.95

Feeding Poultry (1955) by G.F. Heuser 632 pages,

$39.95

Norton Creek Press 36475 Norton Creek Road, Blodgett OR

97326

http://www.nortoncreekpress.com

Jonathan Coulimore

Fertrell Distributor for WA, OR, ID, MT, CA,

AK, HI, BC.

Products in stock are: Original &

Organic Poultry Nutri-Balancer,

Laczyme, DE, Redmond Conditioner,

Azomite, Non-GMO Corn and

Roasted Soybeans, Fish meal and Kelp meal.

Jonathan Coulimore,

Vancouver, WA

503-209-1555 cell,

e-mail [email protected]

Other products available on request.

mailto:[email protected]

Check above your address for your final issue number. If it is #62 or earlier, PLEASE RENEW TODAY!

Go to www.APPPA.org to renew or fill out the form on pg. 23 and mail it in!

APPPA GRIT! PO Box 87

Boyd, WI 54726

PRSRT STD

U S POSTAGE PAID

Eau Claire, WI

Permit #203

3 ways to get APPPA GRIT! - Producer Membership $60/yr:

Every issue of APPPA GRIT! delivered to your mailbox.

An invitation to join our exclusive, members-only online Yahoo! discussion group APPPAplus .

Members-only Web site with back issues of APPPA GRIT!, marketing brochure, and a pastured poultry nutrition guide (can request a paper copy by mail), and more.

Business/Partner Membership $200/yr:

Support the production of healthful food, sustainable family farms, and humane treatment of animals and share YOUR message with people who are interested and

ready to buy!

Membership includes all of the above, PLUS a quarter-page ad in each issue of the APPPA GRIT! and a listing on our Web site.

Subscription to GRIT! $40/yr :

If you do not use the Internet or prefer not to become members.

apppa grit! issue 62 2011 american pastured poultry ... · year and sent to members of apppa. to...

Documents