Poultry Farming

I

Introduction

Poultry Farming, commercial raising of chickens (see Fowl), turkeys, geese, and ducks for their meat and eggs. In recent years, in the United Kingdom, some exotic species such as ostriches have also been farmed, in this case for their meat, skin, and feathers. Poultry meat is an increasingly important food source: for example, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) figures show that consumption in the United Kingdom increased from 24 to 29 kg (53 to 64 lb) per head of population over the period 1992-2002.

II

Chickens

In the 1940s, the high-priced chicken was a luxury dish in many developed countries such as the United Kingdom. Today, however, it is a popular form of meat owing in part to the skill with which poultry farmers around the world have adopted systems of intensive chicken or broiler farming.

Farmers in the United States were the first to make commercial chicken farming economically viable, rearing chickens that could reach market weight in a fraction of the time taken by the old farmyard flocks. They used the major meat breeds, Plymouth Rock females and Cornish males, to produce hybrids, called broilers. These broilers are capable of reaching 2 kg (4.4 lb) live weight at 42 to 45 days, and converting 1.8 units of feed (kg or lb) into 1 unit of meat. Carcass confirmation (the shape of the bird), resistance to disease, and survival rates (with mortality in the region of 2 per cent) are all better than traditional breeds of chicken.

Modern chicken sheds can hold tens of thousands of birds at a time. Birds are reared on the floor from the day they are born, in a computer-controlled environment that automatically opens or closes vents and increases or decreases fan speeds to provide the optimum conditions conducive to steady growth. Supplementary heaters (brooders) are used in the first two or three weeks of rearing in the cooler parts of the world.

Feed is conveyed by tubes into pans or carried by chains in shallow troughs. Feeding systems are switched on several times during daylight hours, but drinking water is always available, mainly through nipples that are activated by the birds, with a cup below to catch the drips.

Broiler farming is now practised virtually worldwide. According to the FAO, the United States, where the practice started, is still the world’s main producer, but producers in China and Brazil are catching up. China is expanding its industry at a great rate; between 1986 and 2004, production of broilers in China rose from 1.9 million tonnes to 9.9 million tonnes. The leading producers in the European Union (EU) in 2004 were Spain (1.3 million tonnes), the United Kingdom (1.2 million tonnes), and France (1.1 million tonnes).

III

Turkeys

The intensive farming of turkeys was set up a few years after the broiler industry. Flocks were moved into houses littered with fresh wood shavings or straw to enable the birds to convert feed into meat more economically, and to avoid a build-up in the soil of parasites that cause disease. Land on which poultry is constantly ranged can become “fowl sick”. Tens of thousands of turkeys have also been moved into vast controlled environments—purpose-built houses—enabling females to reach 4.5 kg (10 lb) live weight at 12 weeks, and males 7.3 kg (16 lb) at 16 weeks.

In countries such as the United States, large mechanized plants were set up to slaughter and process thousands of birds a day with the minimum of labour. Initially, birds were sold whole and virtually all were eaten on festive occasions, but as a year-round market was developed by the food industry, turkeys were cut up, portioned, and further processed into roasts, steaks, fillets, burgers, smoked turkey, and turkey bacon.

According to the FAO, the major turkey producers are the United States (2.4 million tonnes in 2004) and Western Europe, particularly France (624,000 tonnes), Germany (380,000 tonnes), and Italy (325,000 tonnes). In Europe, the intensive sector has supplied 80 to 90 per cent of the market with whole birds and fresh and frozen products, while a number of smaller farm operations (average size 5,000 to 10,000 birds) produce slower-growing fresh birds. These are fed a ration comprising 80 per cent grain (and 20 per cent other constituents, such as cereal substitutes and soya), and hung for up to seven days after slaughter. This maturing period is said to develop an improved flavour and meat texture so that the birds sell at a considerable premium over intensively produced birds.

IV

Ducks and Geese

Neither duck nor goose production has been intensified to the same degree as that for chickens or turkeys, because they are waterfowl and do not have the same favourable conversion rates or fast growth characteristics.

Geese, as grazing birds, will eat grass, but it is difficult to get breeding flocks to lay eggs outside the natural season of spring and early summer as they do not respond so readily to artificial lighting, which fools laying hens of the other species into thinking that they exist in a world of increasing or constant daylight. Geese are best suited to less-intensive farming operations; however, duck production in countries such as the United Kingdom has become more commercial, with birds kept in large straw-covered sheds.

China is by far the biggest producer of duck meat in the world, at 2.3 million tonnes in 2004. The next biggest producer, France, only managed one tenth of this, at 230,000 tonnes. In South East Asia, Malaysia is the biggest producer after China, producing 102,000 tonnes in 2004. Malaysia rears around 20 million ducks a year, mainly the Peking type, and around half a million Muscovy, which are used in Eastern Europe for the traditional gavage, or force-fed, pâté de foie gras market.

The liver of the Toulouse goose is used for pâté de foie gras, particularly in south-western France. The birds are crammed with grain in the final weeks of rearing to produce the enlarged liver vital to the production of this expensive pâté. This is a controversial practice that is banned in a number of Western European countries.