With demand for organic meat skyrocketing 150 percent over the past decade in the United States, a recent study looked at how organically raised broilers might fare on existing poultry farms in Manitoba.
“It’s the fastest growing food sector in the U.S. It’s a billion dollar industry now. In Canada it has grown as well, but not as quickly. I foresee tremendous growth in the organic industry, especially for meat,” said Phil Klopak, a consultant with Winnipeg-based Finer Feeds.
“I was just speaking with a buyer from the U.S. this week, and he is working on purchasing organically grown poultry, beef and bison from Canada. They can’t supply their own needs in the U.S.”
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The study, which saw a total of 240,000 broilers in 37 Ross and Ross cross flocks raised on organic feeds in barns around Manitoba from December 2005 until May 2006, was conducted by Finer Feeds with co-operation from the Chicken Farmers of Canada under temporary grower permits granted by Manitoba Chicken Producers.
Eight different producers hosted production cycles of 6,500 birds fed a vegetarian diet consisting of certified organic grains and soybean meal and oil from Western Canada in both new and old facilities.
The study found that under the ration, the birds were slightly slower to mature, reaching a market weight of four pounds in 41 days, as opposed to the industry standard of 34 days.
“In conventional production, you leave them under artificial light for 24 hours a day for the first four to five days and 23 hours light for the last five to six days. Under organic production you have to have them in darkness for a minimum of eight hours a day,” he said.
“That would be one of the reasons why they had lower production gains.”
Mortality was slightly higher for the organic birds, at five to six percent versus three to four percent for conventional flocks. Feed conversion clocked in at two-to-one, again slightly less efficient than the industry norm of 1.8.
Gut health was monitored through the course of the study, to assist in determining the commercial potential of raising broilers without the use of medicated feed additives.
“Could we get these birds to perform? Could we keep them alive? We found that we were able to do so and they were able to perform at acceptable levels,” Klopak said.
Since antibiotics or medications are forbidden under the organic regime, if an outbreak of disease does occur, poultry farmers have the choice of staying the course and hoping losses are not significant, or medicating the birds and marketing them as conventional poultry.
It all comes down to management, Klopak said. In the organic system, great care must be taken so that the birds aren’t stressed, there are no draughts in the barn, and that the temperature matches the rate of growth.
“If you do a good job, you don’t need to medicate,” he said. “We had less than five percent of our flocks fall out of the program.”
The slower growth rate reduced the incidence of heart attacks. However, leg problems showed up at about the same level as in conventional flocks.
While feed costs were more than double conventional rations, organic meat, depending on the specific cut, fetches a 25-70 percent premium from the consumer.
“You have to obviously get a premium for the product. If the consumer is willing to pay that premium, it would pencil out,” he said.
“I don’t know if it is as apparent in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but in Ontario and B.C., there is a large part of the population that wants organic food and would be willing to pay the premium.”
Other organic production rules covered handling and processing. However, the differences are not great between current industry practices already in place in Manitoba and those under the organic standard.
“Bird handling from the barn to processing is almost identical,” he said.
The broilers were processed at Granny’s Poultry in Blumenort, Man., and sold under the Pop’s Farm brand.
