The thing
about farming is that we are constantly learning, ever-ready to adapt to new
systems, varieties, climate, even changing soil microbiology. It’s fascinating and keeps life interesting
but means that we can’t rest on ‘how it’s always been done’. So when it comes to questions regarding our
products, we take extra time to sit back and consider as many angles as we can. Feed is no exception and when we were
considering Pellets Vs. Mash, it was a long back and forth of
consideration. Since it’s a question
we’re sometimes asked by customers, here’s some of what we considered (but, as
I said, we’re always learning, so nothing is ever static).
It was
firstly a matter of reducing the amount of processing that the grain goes
through from seed to feed. It makes
sense to us that the animals get a product that is as close to what it really
is as possible. Michael Pollan, the
well-known food author, is oft-quoted as saying, “Eat real food” and we don’t think that has to apply only to
people. Our feed has no fillers or weird
stuff and every ingredient is in there for nutritive value, so we wanted to
keep it as little processed as possible while still making it accessible to the
animals consuming it. We wanted to avoid
any unnecessary heating of the grains and pelletizing would almost certainly
contribute to that as well.
Another
factor we considered was the growth of the birds, particularly the meat
birds. We’ve read that the pellets
result in faster growth and bird ready to market a few days earlier but along
with that comes health problems like ascites.
The increased demand on the body of the bird to grow quickly becomes too
much and they suffer from, and eventually succumb to symptoms related to
respiratory problems. While the
conventional broiler breeds (meat kings) are already a bit pre-disposed to
these health challenges, we wanted to make sure that we did not contribute to
them, and in fact reduced them if possible.
Using a mash with a more consistent particle size meant a slightly
slower growing but healthier bird.
Organic production is certainly directly in line with this thinking, but
so too are the desires of any smaller scale chicken farmer. A healthier bird is the priority when it’s
going to be your food!
The last
factor we considered played directly into our values statement as a farm:
“Barnyard
Organics is a diversified, family-friendly farm with a priority on organic
integrity from seed to feed and keeping products fair and accessible to the
regional community.“
We have
worked really hard at prioritizing the ‘fair and accessible’ part of the
statement because we want more organic livestock in the Maritimes and want to
play a role in making feed a fair price.
Pelletizing would add an extra step and thus, more cost to our final
product and we didn’t see the benefit outweighing the added cost.
We have
several customers who choose to ferment the feed, prior to feeding it. Our own experience has taught us that the
height of the feeders plays an important role and that our hens make optimal
use of the feed when it is kept up at least as high as their backs, closer to
eye level.
I love
farming for lots of reasons and constant learning and adapting is just one of
them. Who knows what we’ll learn tomorrow!
