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Organic Pastured Poultry at Gifts from the Good Earth
July-August 2002
by Jody Padgham
©2002 Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service

Mike Hansen is a man who loves to talk and share ideas, and so a recent field day at his farm, sponsored by MOSES and GrassWorks, found him truly in his element. 29 people from across Wisconsin, Minnesota and into Michigan gathered on a hot July Saturday to tour the Hansen operation and discuss the production of organic pastured poultry.

Mike, Deb and their three children operate Gifts From the Good Earth, near Milladore, WI, between Stevens Point and Marshfield. The Hansen's bought their 80 acre farm in 1995- thinking it would be the perfect place to explore their dreams of undertaking an organic farming operation. This year, seven years into that exploration, they are midway into raising 4400 certified organic (MOSA) Cornish Rock Cross meat birds, marketing most directly to consumers, retail outlets and some to restaurants.

We began our tour in the dairy barn, a corner of which now serves as the brooder for their 800 to 1000 chick batches. It quickly becomes clear that the Hansen style is to retrofit and design to continuously improve systems in order to increase efficiency. Mike points out that he does well both as a farmer and at his day job, as a Rural Planner for Portage County, because he is the kind of guy that just can't stop trying to figure out a "better way". Complemented by Deb's expertise with numbers (she is Director of Fiscal Affairs for the research division of the Marshfield Clinic, as well as farmer and Mom), it is easy to see why things really happen at Gifts from the Good Earth.

Back to the brooder. 1000, 3+ week old chicks were happily chirping their way around the 12x30 foot pen inside the dairy barn. With a little cement work, a few 2x4's, hog panels, chicken wire and poultry netting, the Hansen's created a very clean and airy brooder facility. Chicks stay in the brooder for exactly four weeks, after which they are rotated into pens out in the field for the remaining four weeks of their growth. Chicks have easy access to clean water, clean bedding and organic starter feed. Bedding in the brooder is 6" of pine shavings on a cement floor. Mike notes that he much prefers pine shavings to anything else he has tried for bedding, as it is very absorbent and stays clean and loose for the chicks. He adds a new 20# bag of chips as needed, and will pull all the bedding out between batches of chicks.

Mike's keys to good organic brooder management:
· Extreme care with cleanliness. Remove bedding and wash down walls, ceiling and floors with a slight bleach solution (rinsed well) between batches. Be sure to exclude all wild birds, droppings and nests from the brooder area, as the wild birds will carry diseases.
· Predator control. Mike's worst predators in the brooder tend to be dogs and cats. He uses hog panels with chicken wire to keep out the dog, and tightly constructed doors etc. to keep the cats out.
· Disease control. The Hansen's sprinkle a little bit of Tumeric (bright yellow, popular Indian spice) on the chick feed each day, as it has mild antibacterial qualities. They have found it to make a significant difference on chick health. If they see any evidence of coccidia, they will spritz organic cider vinegar on the feed. Vinegar will work to modify the pH in the bird's gut, and Mike says within a few days of starting vinegar on the food all symptoms of coccidiosis will disappear.
· Restrict feed after 6 days. A system of 12 hours on and 12 hours off for feed in the brooder vastly reduces leg problems and heart attacks. You will eventually learn how much feed your chicks will eat in 12 hours, and so can feed only that much so they run out in a reasonable time. Mike recommends that whenever you notice any stress symptoms, reduce feed availability a little.
· Temperature control. Be sure the brooder is warm enough in the early season and cool enough in the hot season. Mike has found that it doesn't pay in north central WI to start chicks before mid May or after mid August. A participant at the field day noted that he has done careful studies and found that it is the extremes in daily temperature that stress out chicks, and that female chicks are more tolerant of temperature spreads than males (thus he gets hen chicks for his early batches and has very significantly improved success). Mike puts Remay row cover cloth (more familiar with vegetable farmers) over the open chicken wire to help insulate chicks when it is colder, and turns on the barn fans to circulate air on hot days.
· Be sure the chicks have plenty of feeder space. Mike uses a "stress feeder" in each batch's first few days (a wide, long plastic trough with a shallow layer of feed) to distract the young birds from the regular feeders while he fills them. Mike has found the birds eventually learn not to crowd, but may need this distraction for the first few weeks.
· Mike and Deb have used red heat lamps for brooder lamps for several years, but this year are switching to propane gas brooders, as they feel they will be less stressful on the chicks and more economical to run.
· Drip water systems are clean and easy for the birds to use (cost about $200 per 30 ft length). The Hansen's don't have to dip beaks anymore, as the chicks can start themselves on the drip waterers, which are on pulleys so they can be raised as the chicks grow.

From the brooder, the chicks are herded into a nifty loader cart that Mike just designed this year. The cart (actually a sledge) is made from an old steel door, flat and on wood runners, with foot high walls built on three sides, and a drop down mesh door on the fourth (long) side. At one point Mike tells the group that his four wheeler is 'the most important piece of equipment on the farm', as he uses it to not only haul birds, but also to haul feed and for numerous other daily chores.

The Hansen's have designed their own pasture pens using hog and cattle panels ("you can do everything with cattle panels," Mike tells us.) Hansen's pen design will be elaborated on in an article for the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (www.apppa.org) later this year.

Birds go into the 8.5x12 foot pens for four weeks. Around 80 birds live in each pen, each has a hand built feeder, (modified from 15 and 30 gallon buckets) that is filled every day and holds about 5 gallons of organic chicken feed. The watering system utilizes used equipment bought from the turkey industry. Gravity and plastic hosing run the system, with each of the plastic watering containers hanging in the 10 pens connected to each other with plastic hosing. Mike currently runs his water system off his pasture watering system, as the birds are close to the cows in this rotation. Pens are moved forward to new pasture each day, using a two wheel dolly.

Keys to organic success in the field:
· Predator protection. The Hansen's have not had predator problems to speak of, but a close eye must be kept for any signs of predator issues, with fast control measures taken. Mike notes that the state statutes allow you to kill dogs that are attacking your livestock, if all other measures fail. He has had to go to this extreme, painfully, one time. Keeping the surrounding area clear of high grass or habitat that will house predators has also reduced their risk.
· Protect the birds from weather. Mike's pens are designed with a tarp on the top and west side, and another on the north side. This keeps most of the rain and wind off the birds, and the pen design, though light weight, is aerodynamic so heavy winds won't move them. Pens can be staked if needed. During heavy rain storms it is extremely important to keep the birds out of low spots- move the pens if you need to, as the birds will pile up, and suffocate or drown. Otherwise, between June and August, (even as early as mid May) birds do fine in outdoor pens in the Midwest.
· Feed: The Hansen's purchase a standard organic 'grower feed' from Golden Grains in Sparta WI. The mix contains certified organic high lysine corn, wheat, roasted soybeans, kelp and McNess poultry mix. Feed is delivered and stored in a 11,500# batch, which 800 birds will consume in 8 weeks. Buying in large, bulk quantity reduces the price per pound significantly over bagged feed. Birds will consume about 15# of feed from birth to processing. As in the brooder, the Hansen's have found that limiting feed intake, putting only enough feed in the pen feeders so that the birds run out of supply by at least 1pm, increases overall health of the birds and reduces leg and heart attack problems. Grass and insects from pasture complement the grain feed and increases the bird's vigor.
· Rotation. Pastures are rotated for 3 years, with beef cattle and mowing used to manage the pastures when the chickens are not on them. A three-year rotation is important for coccidia control.

After 4 weeks on pasture, all 800 birds are loaded into transport pens (again handmade) and taken by truck to a certified organic USDA processing facility in NE Iowa. (Wapsy Produce) Once there, the birds are butchered, cleaned, bagged, labeled, frozen and put in cardboard boxes (6 per box), which are then weighed and transported back to frozen storage near the Hansen's farm. Cost of processing (excluding transportation) is $1.75 per bird.

Birds have to this point been direct marketed, frozen, through word of mouth connections and visits to restaurants in the Marshfield area. This year the Hansen's are more than doubling their production, and know that they will need to gear up other marketing techniques, including advertising, to sell the birds. Currently the price for birds is $2.89 per pound when purchasing fewer than 12 birds, or $2.39 per pound for two or more cases (6 to a case).

Deb calculates variable costs (cost of chick, feed, etc, not including labor) to be about $6.83 per bird. Fixed expenses (depreciation, insurance, certification, interest expense etc.) averages about $3.08 per bird for 1300 birds (their production last year). These averages put the costs of a 4.5 pound bird at $9.84. Sold for an average of $12.00, this leaves a gross profit of $2.16 per bird. The Hansen's have a goal of $4.00 profit per bird, which they feel will make their labor worthwhile. They continue to work with lowering costs, but feel they have overall production very efficient and cost effective now. They see the only other variable is to increase numbers of birds produced, which will spread fixed costs out over a larger group, reducing the production cost per bird. Doing this assessment is what is leading them to larger production this year, and plans to continue expanding their operation as their time and patience allow.

Mike and Deb generously offered to build one of their strong and lightweight pens, nicknamed the "Pasture Schooner", constructed from the all-purpose cattle panel, for the group. Hammers and wire clippers flew, as participants lent a hand. In exactly one hour, a new pen sat on the front lawn, with a moderate $95.00 price tag (not including labor. Lower if you buy the materials on sale or at a bulk discount).

While the kids played in the new pen (great for a kid sleep-over, one participant remarked) the adults gathered round, relishing the new found knowledge of the day and the beautiful Belted Galloway beef burgers Deb had just pulled off the grill.

Jody Padgham is the Education Director of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service

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