Abstract
Pasture rearing is an increasingly common option for small farms to produce humanely raised poultry products for an expanding market, however profit margins tend to be much lower for pastured poultry producers than for those that opt for conventional indoor rearing. Research into simple methods to optimize the growth and health of pasture-raised poultry can help small farmers maximize meat yields and decrease the morbidity and mortality of their flock, ultimately leading to higher profit margins and improved animal welfare. The objective of this study was to measure how the inclusion of mature, native foliage into pastures can impact the production performance and overall health status of two different popular breeds of commercial broiler chickens; fast-growing Cornish cross and slower growing Red rangers. During the finisher phase (30–78 days old), pastured chickens were separated by breed into either a treatment population with access to a mature bordering hedgerow, or a control population without access to a hedgerow. Weekly weight gain, daily feed intake and basic hematologic values were used to evaluate differences in the production performance and health status between each population. We found that hedge access led to a significant improvement in the rate of gain of the Cornish cross without an associated increase in feed intake, suggesting that the addition of hedges can increase meat yields in fast-growing broilers without increasing feed costs. Red rangers with hedge access demonstrated an improved ability to neutralize bacterial pathogens in whole blood and a lesser degree of hemodilution compared to control populations, suggesting improved immune function and a lower degree of heat stress in these populations. We conclude that the addition of natural environmental enrichment such as mature foliage to grass pastures can lead to improved production performance in fast-growing broilers and improvements in the health and immune function of slower growing broiler chickens.
Highlights
Pastured poultry, according to the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA), is defined by low-density stocked flocks that live a significant portion of their lives outside on rotated pasture with 90–100% vegetative cover1
After controlling for sex, per bird weekly intake, and starting weight, Cornish cross with access to the hedge, on average, gained weight faster than Cornish cross in the bare pasture (β = −31.29, p-value = 0.002, Figures 2, 3; Supplementary Table 1), access to the hedge had no significant effect on feed intake (Figure 4; Supplementary Table 2)
Our results suggest that providing access to a hedge can improve the rate of weight gain for pasture-raised Cornish cross broilers without incurring extra feed costs (Figures 2–4), which in turn could help optimize the economic gain of small farms
Summary
Pastured poultry, according to the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA), is defined by low-density stocked flocks that live a significant portion of their lives outside on rotated pasture with 90–100% vegetative cover. The profit margins for small farms, can be prohibitively low (Hoppe, 2015) so it is of vital importance that small farmers be able to maximize the value of their products for effective marketing and sales. If small farmers can make low-cost adjustments to their methods that result in improved feed efficiency, health of their birds, and/or nutritional content of their poultry meat, this could help improve profit margins and provide economic opportunities for small farmers. Utilization of pre-existing vegetative borders (hedgerows) for chicken runs could be a low-cost, low effort way to improve pasture conditions and feed efficiency for pastureraised poultry operations especially for small farms, because the perimeters of small farms are greater relative to their total area than for large production systems
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