Farming mealworms for chicken feed with Cheryl Powers: PPT091
Release Date: 08/15/2019
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Pastured Poultry Flocks
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I have a conversation with Chrislyn Wood, DVM, about the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and pasture raised flocks. Dr. Wood is a veterinarian with USDA APHIS and she is involved first hand with HPAI monitoring and response efforts. We cover a lot of ground, including historical observations, risk assessment, disease identification, and prevention.
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The Days of Wholesale Pastured Chickens are Over for Greg Gunthorp
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Greg Gunthorp joins the show to talk about his decision to step away from pasture raised chickens. Covid plays into the story, of course, but the challenges started long before this virus came to be front page news.
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Turning a 20 year chicken hobby into a farm with Cynthia Capers
Pastured Poultry Talk
Cynthia Capers, Heniscity Farm in Tennessee, shares her 20+ year journey from hobby chicken keeper to farm. Twenty years ago, the sight of six Black Australorps brought tears to her eyes. Today, she's serving her community through egg sales, chick sales, and pullet sales.
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PPT114 - Small Layer Flock Profitability
Pastured Poultry Talk
I answer a listener question, "How can I make my small laying hen flock more profitable?" With feedback from the community, insights from The Fighting Farmer, and personal experience, we dive deep into ways to prosper from your small flock of laying hens.
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Perdue Acquires Pasturebird
Pastured Poultry Talk
Perdue acquires Pasturebird and becomes the biggest producer in the space. I unpack what it means on this episode and walk through some history.
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Maintain Production with All In/All Out Rotation for 5,000 laying hens
Pastured Poultry Talk
Listener Chris asks how to utilize an all-in/all-out pullet replacement strategy without duplicating infrastructure while maintaining egg production. To help answer the question, I share insights from Mark Harrison and Dave and Ginger Shields.
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Community Q&A Plus a Monologue on Heritage Poultry's Role in Pastured (PPT109)
Pastured Poultry Talk
I close out the pastured poultry training series with a live streamed Q&A between Terrell Spencer from The Fighting Farmer and myself. We went live on Facebook and fielded questions from our listeners, and this episode of the podcast includes an edited version of that conversation. If you want to watch a replay of the stream, find it on . Before we work into the questions, I offer some thoughts on heritage poultry's potential role in pastured community. APPPA has recently started to focus on breeding specific topics and offers monthly livestreams on breeding. Check out . We cover a...
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Feed Management Tips to Reduce Waste & Maintain Egg Production
Pastured Poultry Talk
In Pastured Poultry Talk episode 110, farmer Matt Steinman discussed how he used fermented feed as a solution to waste and fines. While fermentation can be a viable solution for some people, it's not the only way to deal with fines. This episode unpacks those options.
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Is Fermented Feed Worth the Time for 1,000 hens?
Pastured Poultry Talk
Farmer Matt Steinman (Foothills Farm in Sedro-Woolley, Washington) and Dr. Louisa Brouwer (technical advisor on the trial) share the results of a SARE-funded trial that sought to understand the economic impacts of feeding fermented feed to laying hens. The trial compared a dry feed, wet feed, and a fermented feed and then determined the net difference across to the bottom line.
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Community Q&A PIus a Heritage Poultry Monologue
Pastured Poultry Talk
I close out the pastured poultry training series with a live streamed Q&A between Terrell Spencer from The Fighting Farmer and myself. We went live on Facebook and fielded questions from our listeners, and this episode of the podcast includes an edited version of that conversation
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Crickets are a popular insect protein for humans, and black soldier fly larvae receive most of the attention among chicken keepers; Cheryl Powers, Jord Producers, plans to change that by farming mealworms as a supplemental chicken feed. Actually, she's working to position mealworms for reptiles, exotic birds, and humans (but we tend to stick to chickens).
One of the biggest benefits of mealworms is that they are high in protein. There has also been published research in Poultry Science that shows feeding mealworms to chickens can increase average daily gain, feed conversation, egg size, and flavor.
According to Cheryl, you only need to feed a small amount of mealworms to see an increase in the protein intake of the chickens' diet. Less than 10 mealworms is her recommendation. Chickens love the mealworms, and they will forage on them without hesitation.
There can be too much of a good thing. If the birds fill up on the fiber of the mealworms, they won't get all the other vitamins, mineral, and nutrients they need to thrive. Mealworms, in other words, are not a complete diet.
Nutrition of Mealworm as Chicken Feed
According to analysis by Jord Producers, the mealworm contains the following nutrition profile:
- Protein
- As-fed: 19%
- Dry Matter: 55%
- Fiber
- As-fed: 3%
- Dry Matter: 8%
- Fat
- As-fed: 9%
- Dry Matter: 26%
As-fed calculations represent the live mealworm, as eaten by the chicken. The dry matter removes the water from mealworm, thereby concentrating the nutrition.
Growing Mealworms for Chicken Feed
As Cheryl describes in the podcast episode, the mealworms are raised on a wheat bran with sliced potatoes or carrots as a water source. Mealworms are farmed indoors in an environmentally controlled space.
The tubs containing the mealworms are stacked vertically, making this a versatile farming operation. One of the company's growers, has actually repurposed an unused hog farrowing barn for the mealworm farm.
Jord Produces is in the first year of business and building markets as they learn to be insect farmers. They have a first goal of being able to produce 400 pounds of mealworms a week.
For now, the poultry focus will be on supplemental feeds and treats for chickens. Cracking the commodity pricing floor to compete with soy is a difficult task. The other interesting challenge is that it takes mealworms approximately two-and-a half months to reach harvest. When you put that in perspective, a cornish cross chicken can be ready to harvest in under two months (7 or 8 weeks).
But as more and more consumers move toward soy-free fed poultry products, insect proteins may make inroads as a poultry feed ingredient, pending certification from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).
Contact Cheryl Powers
Jord Producers: website | Instagram | Facebook | Email