poultrycast industry

Gonzo entertains us with his hen octet. You have to laugh when an ag issue like animal welfare makes it to the Muppets:)

Dr. Anderson slices and dices regulations and offers his view on what the costs of excess regulation do to the agriculture supply chain.

Tim Hortons has put together a series of videos to promote and highlight their efforts toward environmental and business sustainability. This video shares their commitment to their customers on animal welfare.

This Drought Monitor resource helps people plan short term and long term planting resource needs, harvest, vacation, gardens, and other water focused activities.

Going organic is a serious commitment that can pay off in global markets. While there has long been a general agriculture industry dismissal for organic production, it is what consumer want and will pay for it. Food distributors and processors are moving to serve that need on a large scale.

Despite the tough economic times, the organic market around the world is growing and going against the trend of generally falling sales, cuts and reduced expenditure.

Organic cannot be the only answer to agriculture production (read Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture) but it is an option to create strong value for producers. Farm operations that take the time to plan and understand the organic market and business model can be rewarded handsomely.

Lewis Martin, West Pennboro Township in Cumberland County Pennsylvania, is proposing to build a 31,000 SF poultry barn located 1,645 feet from the Big Spring Creek watershed. In his National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit application, he proposes to disturb 8.24 acres to construct poultry houses on his property. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit application is required to address the project's erosion and sediment control and post-construction storm-water management.

"DEP [PA Dept of Environmental Protection] of has received numerous requests for a public hearing from citizens wanting to voice their concerns about the potential for runoff and disturbance to water sources from the poultry barns," DEP South-central Regional Director Rachel Diamond said. "Those comments are valuable to DEP and will be considered with final review of the permit application."

Of concern is the effect of the poultry operation on the Big Spring Creek watershed, which is a trout fishery and high-quality stream. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, to receive testimony.

Dr. Ken Macklin, Auburn University, provides an overview of his International Poultry Scientific Forum on the effect of DDGs on necrotic enteritis. Dr. Macklin seems to believe there is a relationship between the two.

Dr. Malcomb Mitchell, Scottish Ag College, talks about transportation configurations which ensure animal comfort, harvest quality, and tunnel ventilating your transport.

Dr. Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, provided an update on the state of the meat and poultry markets. His main take away is that the demand continued to struggle late 2011.

The bad news is that these "annual" numbers for 2011 have been getting worse and worse as the year has progressed.

Steve reminds us that the indexes only describe how demand is changing, not why a change is occurring. He believes consumer incomes and spending was the major negative force in the domestic market in 2011.

Charts below from Paragon Economics, using USDA data.

Tony Flood, International Food Information Council, asks "How much time do you spend learning about something you don't think you'll need?" and provides insight on how this applies to food safety. He suggests creativity is key to implementing food safety.

How can we be better at communicating the risks of food safety? People are interested in food from a nutritional point of view and from a personal point of view. We need to make a link to those personal connections, bringing into the link the food safety aspect. We need to be better in tune with what consumers are thinking.

Learn more about the International Food Information Council Foundation via conversation with Tony Flood.