THE POULTRY FARMERS BLOG

Hiring and managing great farm help

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Winter Ventilation Management Tips

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Here are some great tips to ensure proper ventilation during the winter months.

1. Proper in between litter management is crucial. It sets the “stage” for the next flock. Start litter conditioning immediately once flock leaves. Ventilate between the flocks. If you are windrowing between flocks, spread the litter out a minimum of 7 days prior to getting chicks. If you do not do this, then ammonia control products will not be as effective. READ MORE

How To Maintain Fans And Optimize Their Performance For Improved Cooling And Reduced Costs

Monday, July 04, 2016

Poultry house fans; we all have them - and depend on them, to maintain optimum growing conditions year round, so whether our primary concern at the time is maximizing fresh air intake, ammonia reduction, or heat removal, regularly ensuring our fans are performing at peak levels has to be an extremely high priority in every grow-out cycle. READ MORE

Vegetative Buffers - What Are They, And What Are Their Advantages?

Tuesday, May 03, 2016

One of the topics that gets raised fairly often is what poultry farms can do to improve neighbor relations, and in this post, I'd like to talk to you about vegetative buffers in some depth.

With the continual advancement of urban sprawl and new communities encroaching into rural areas that have long been isolated parts of the countryside, it was just a matter of time before communities and poultry farms had to find creative ways of existing in relatively close proximity to each other. In this situation, vegetative buffers are an excellent way to help soften the impact, significantly improving neighbor relations on all fronts and interestingly there are even more advantages to vegetative buffers than you'd initially expect; these buffers can actually reduce your operational costs in the winter and summer months - and who wouldn't want that, right? READ MORE

Hiring A Farm Management Team

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Poultry has been a huge part of my life for over 27 years and I've worked hard to create strategies for my farm and others, for instance how to minimize mortality, maximize productivity and of course increase profits across the board. (I'm a family man, so I have to find ways of making this work while also having time for my wife and kids.) One of the key factors I always share with farmers when I'm helping them is the need to invest in great farm help. READ MORE

The Importance Of Even Bird Distribution

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

When operating a poultry farm, especially a multiple house farm, it's essential to spend time working on even bird distribution early in the grow-out cycle and then continuing to improve it before the birds get to large. Good bird distribution will reduce fuel cost, minimize fan runtime, improve feed conversion, and increase average bird body weight (for maximum pounds). READ MORE

Increasing Poultry Farm Profitability by Hiring Help

Thursday, February 25, 2016

In a previous post, I talked about increasing the profitability of your poultry farm by scaling up in size, with particular focus on the potential benefits and associated risk while briefly touching on hiring help, in the form of employees and independent contracted services - there's a lot to consider here, but the biggest challenge most farmers have comes from sourcing and hiring really great farm help, so in this post, we'll discuss using employees and independent contracted services on your poultry farm in more depth, and cover many of the most pressing questions on your mind. READ MORE

How to Increase the Profitability of Your Poultry Farm

Monday, January 18, 2016

When running a poultry farm, there are numerous benefits to dramatically scaling up poultry production, with the primary focus, of course, being on streamlining the overall operation and making a reasonable grow out cycle/turnaround time feasible and consistent throughout the year too. This can only be done by hiring help on the farm and/or using independent, contracted service providers, and we're going to take a look at how this works. READ MORE

Outsourcing Parts of Your Poultry Farming to Maximize Returns

Thursday, December 17, 2015

A strong worldwide demand for poultry (an affordable protein source) has increased the need for additional growers in the industry. Poultry farming can be a lucrative business to be a part of when done properly, however the dynamics of poultry farming are changing. Most of the new farms coming on line are larger in size with computer controlled systems and are run more efficiently to scale. Due to recent changes in the industry, the typical size of a new poultry house is 44,220 square feet and six houses are common on new farms; totaling 265,320 square feet of growing space.   READ MORE

The Evolution Of The Poultry Industry

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

The poultry industry is changing, and these changes have been accelerating greatly over the last 3 years. This is particularly so since the USDA's partial deregulation of processing plants, which essentially allowed integrators to process 25% more birds (pounds) with virtually the same overhead by running faster.

This change has resulted in a need for 25% more growing capacity and now leads to signing bonuses of $1 per sq. foot or to look at this from another angle, a check for $44,220 for every new house built; the current average is six houses representing $265,320 per farm. READ MORE

Managing Ventilation In Concentrated Poultry Feeding Operations

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Ventilation's impact on flock performance is often under-realized in modern poultry feeding operations. Poultry farmers who neglect this aspect of their operation can cause untold harm to their businesses and the livestock that sustains them.

Moreover, improvements in ventilation techniques, particularly with regards to more powerful, efficient fans, along with air velocity, static pressure, air quality and humidity monitors have allowed farmers to keep more poultry in tighter spaces, thus greatly reducing cost per unit when managed effectively. The air flow, however, needs to be carefully regulated and assessed through informed means to ensure the best health of the birds throughout each grow out cycle.

Therefore, it's essential to check one's ventilation at the beginning of an operation, then to keep up a regular monitoring / maintenance schedule so as to be well positioned to quickly adapt to changing ventilation requirements as and when they arise. READ MORE

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