Chicken Snippets

Brooder barn dynamics is an art. A mystery to the inexperienced. But a well-defined formula of success to the masters of the stockman craft. [Read more…] about Mystery of brooder barn dynamics

Commercially bred flocks – either broilers or layers are highly specified products. Creatures (and therefore, by nature) expressing variation, but selectively bred (by design) for predictable results. [Read more…] about Flocks don’t tell tales

Stockmanship bails poultry farmers out of the most desperate disasters. Stockmanship is the art of feeling there’s something wrong with your flock, before you really know it. [Read more…] about Stockmanship: a poultry farmer’s best friend

How well are your chicks adapting to life in your brooder? What’s your measure? The trusted yardstick is crop fill. [Read more…] about Crop fill: a trusted measure of brooder hospitality

The value of data analysis is sound direction. And this begins with accurate data collection. “There’s no point reading, if what you’re reading is misleading.” [Read more…] about Accuracy: the bedrock of meaningful poultry farm analysis

Feed conversion is indeed the aim of the game (i.e. turning livestock feed into household food) – but let’s remember it’s a metric. And metrics are only as good as their underlying processes.

Feed conversion is an average. It’s an indicator of the entire picture, based on a randomly assorted cohort of representatives. A way of saying, “…if these 100 chicks meet this mark – then chances are that overall we must be there, or thereabouts.”

And then, you have the distribution. By admission, there is variation in any organic collective. Even as tightly engineered as birds can get…Cobb 500 included…you can’t take away from nature’s individuality.

Some birds will be stronger, weaker, bigger, small etc. than their peers. Every bird is different.We’ll never change that.

Nor is the aim of the game to change that. But rather to encourage as many as conceivably possible to fall within ‘goal’. And this comes within standardising and monitoring. Without the later, we have no confidence that the former is achieved.

Our baseline for results in farming is 1st having that “…auditing kinda mentality”. Write down what you do and do what you write down to prove it.

In the case of broiler farming and layer farming alike, performance uniformity is inextricably linked to body weight.

Typically, if you can control body weight, you will control the outcome of poultry farming. Ok, not quite so simplistic an equation, but bodyweight sure is the driving force and most predictive indicator of your poultry successes.

So, nail the process and perfect the outcome. It’s really as simple as that.