A Year’s Work at Poultry Demonstration Plant

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 74, Issue 6, 16 June 1947, Page 557

A Year’s Work at Poultry Demonstration Plant

By

F. C. BOBBY,

Superintendent of Poultry

Husbandry, Wellington, and E. CHAMBERS, Manager of the Poultry Demonstration Plant, Upper Hutt.

A YEAR ago the Department of Agriculture announced that the Table Poultry Plant, Upper Hutt, had been taken over on a permanent basis for the establishment of a practical poultry demonstration plant and a poultry breeding unit, and that the Poultry Station, Wallaceville, would be closed after its 20 years of existence and the livestock and plant transferred to the new Upper Hutt unit. The sole purpose of the Department maintaining a poultry plant of any description is to give a service to the poultry industry, including the sale of stock, demonstrations in sound husbandry, and the conducting of scientifically-planned and properly-controlled experiments. Before 1939 that was done by the Wallaceville plant, but the services had to be severely restricted during the war years. The time has arrived when those restricted services can be expanded, though unfortunately only at a greatly-reduced rate because of post-war shortages of poultry foods, which of necessity limit the number of birds maintained on the plant.

*T*O carry out work of interest and value to the poultry ■"• industry is but part of the service to be offered. It is equally important to ensure that information about that work reaches poultry producers throughout the Dominion. With that object it is the intention of the Department to publish an annual, report setting out the many aspects of the everyday management of the plant and reviewing in detail features thought likely to be of value to poultry producers. This annual report is to be separate from any reports detailing the . results of major experiments conducted at the plant. It is hoped that by this method of publicity interest in the activities of the plant will be stimulated and the benefits of its. work will be within easy reach of those most concerned —poultry producers throughout New Zealand. -

The biggest undertaking during the past year has been dismantling the poultry station at Wallaceville and building additional poultry housing at the new demonstration plant from the materials removed from Wallaceville. A carefully-prepared programme was drawn up and the work carried out by the amalgamated staffs of the two units. The open winter of last year and the period of fine weather which followed helped in no small degree to ensure that the programme was carried out to time and without undue difficulties.

Because of the acute food shortage no attempt was made to rear table birds, though the two large intensive houses set aside for this 1 work at a later date have been completed against' the time when they can 'be brought into operation. They are planned for. the production of up to 12 dozen table birds weekly, while the processing building used previously for killing, plucking, and packing remains untouched and capable of handling this number. - <

Again, because of the food shortage, and in confor-

mity with the appeal to poultry producers as a whole, heavy culling has been carried out throughout the year, reducing the flock to a minimum consistent with retaining sufficient birds from which to build up again as soon as the food situation is easier. That has caused the plant to look, and in fact to be, badly understocked, a feature that has been observed but appreci-

ated by visitors

Apart from the programme of building additional housing, . altering existent housing to suit new purposes, and erecting fencing, most of the paddocks of the farm have been ploughed up and resown in grass. That was considered desirable -as a protection against possible troubles dormant ,in the surface soil, as poultry had been run on this land before its purchase by the Department.

The transfer of the stock, consisting of White Leghorns and Black Orpingtons, from Wallaceville was completed after the breeding season closed. ' Because of the difficulties associated with the amalgamation of the two plants •; no attempt was made to have breeding stock accredited under the New Zealand Poultry Flock Improvement Plan for 1946, but all breeding stock has been entered for accreditation in 1947. The - replacement programme for 1946 was limited to what could reasonably be undertaken in view of the available supplies of foods and the capabilities of

the staff while engaged on a heavy reconstruction programme.

Replacements- will have to be stepped up to some extent in 1947" to avoid a really serious shortage of breeding stock in the next few years. A foundation breeding flock must be established before any appreciable breeding or experimental work can be embarked on. However, there is no possibility of an ' additional call for food which will endanger supplies available to poultry producers in the Wellington and adjacent districts.

A number of returned servicemen received training for varying periods during the year, , and one has .since become an assistant poultry instructor, stationed in Wellington, after a period of additional experience at the plant.

Pedigree Breeding Unit

The establishment of the pedigree breeding unit during the past year has been a major item on ■'he programme of reorganisation. This unit has been , designed for a breeding scheme corresponding with the requests of the annual Dominion poultry conference of this year. The industry requested that the Government poultry plant, with Massey and Lincoln Agricultural. Colleges, should embark on a programme of pedigree poultry breeding, including the selection of stock •by progeny testing, so that they might offer producers s'ock of known quality. There were delegates at the conference who realised the time and labour involved in any such scheme. Some years must pass before the demonstration plant has. tested stock to offer the public, but the standard of the stock offered for sale will be raised year by year as the breeding project progresses.

The unit set aside for this work consists of 10 separate breeding units (Fig. 1), having a maximum capacity of 150 breeding hens, and six laying houses ' for , pullets with a maximum capacity of 480 birds, all of which can be trap nested. Only five trap-nest

pullet houses will be in full use annually. As each house is divided into two separate . units,v with separate outside grass 'runs,, the five houses in use give 10 units for 40 birds each. Each breeding unit, therefore, will- have a corresponding pullet trap-nest unit. The pullets in each unit will come from the same breeding pens and will be full sisters or not less than half sisters. Fig. 1 illustrates one of these houses, which are 24ft. x 16ft., or 12ft. x 16£t. for each unit. In the initial stages at least, the intention is to run five breeding pens of White Leghorns and five of Black Orpingtons, with the corresponding five pullet units , of' each. This year, however, there are six pullet units of White Leghorns and two. of Black Orpingtons. All are being trap nested. The first stage in the breeding programme is to test different strains, of

White Leghorns and Black Orpingtons to select the best strains of each for pedigree breeding. Five strains of Leghorns and four of Black Orpingtons are under test this year. They have already ..been recorded for hatching and rearing ability; the test is now for production, egg quality, and constitution. ■ Marked differences are already apapparent and some of these strains are likely to be discarded. Additional strains are to be subjected To this initial test in the 1947-48 breeding and rearing season. ■ Farm Operations All Black Orpington chicks required for the plant were hatched between August 19 and September 23, and White Leghorns between August 12 and September 23. During that period

no chicks were available for sale to the public, the plant’s requirements' being given . first. priority.

For this initial year (and it may have to be repeated for one more year) all chicks were brooded under intensive conditions up to about six weeks of age. As soon as is practicable the pedigree unit will include separate brooder houses with grass runs, and the chicks will go out at least after the first week. A unit to handle a maximum of 200 chicks and an electric canopy for brooding are favoured.

Wire Netting Frames

The chicks are placed on wire frames with no covering from a day old onward. The system adopted was developed by the farm manager and has now been adequately tested.

Many poultry producers have been converted, to the use of the wire netting frames for brooding chickens as a means of avoiding damp floors and sweating and providing increased ventilation, but there is no method common to all who use these frames. The Department now recommends the following method, which may be described, in three stages covering a brooding period of. up to six weeks:—

Day-old to three days: The wire frame, in two halves, is put down in the ordinary way under the canopy with a protecting surround as shown in . Fig. 4, but the space between the wire netting , (which has , Jin. mesh) and the floor is completely filled with litter^ chopped straw. The day-old chicks are put straight on to the , wire netting and no covering of sacking is used. The litter-packed space under the netting holds the heat to the chicks for the first few critical days while the birds become acclimatised.

Fourth day to 31 weeks: The litter is removed from under the frames, leaving the chicks on the netting with increased ventilation and no possibility of sweating (Fig. 5). As the chicks start on the netting at a day old, no trouble is experienced in getting the birds to settle at dusk-in fact, they do not notice any change. If only a limited quantity of gin. netting is available, the chicks may safely be placed on -<in. netting frames at three weeks of age. The larger mesh has the advantage,of being cleaner, as droppings pass through more easily.

Until transferred to range: The only alteration for this last period of brooding is the raising of the wire frames by sin., from the floor by placing blocks of 3in. x 2in. wood at the corners. Run-ups are then placed against the frames as shown in Fig. 6. . This ensures increased ventilation and circulation of air at a time when it is most needed. Under a controlled test, birds placed on frames raised in this manner reached better average weights

than a similar group on wire frames flat on the floor. , That description may cause poultry producers to think : of the extra work and detail entailed as against simpler systems, such as frames with sacking, but the best results in chick rearing are gained only by careful and consistent _ attention to detail, and often extra trouble taken brings its own re-, ward. Summer Colony Houses ■ The summer colony houses used at Wallaceville, - replicas of . which are now to be seen on many farms in both islands, were employed for housing' growing birds. When first constructed .. by the Department and described in a pamphlet, an obvious fault was noticed: The houses were too heavy for manhandling, because New

Zealand timbers are far heavier .than those used overseas for this purpose. In the building of new colony houses at the plant during the past year, Pinus radiata was - used for all framework, employing the same sizes of timber. For the roof, instead of using sarking covered with tarred roofing material as previously, the material was .battened down on the rafters and supported underneath with 2in.' netting. The weight of a house has been much, reduced, and one can now be moved without' undue trouble. This new construction method has also reduced the cost.: Rimu must be used for the perches. Feeding Programme > . The food used at the plant, as on other \ poultry farms, has been restricted .to the ■ standard poultry mashes since the time of their introduction, but the system of feeding may be of interest. . All adult birds are fed as follows on week days: Early morning, light grain feed (|oz. a bird)'; 11 a.m.-noon, wet mash; afternoon, grain followed by green food. On Sundays the adult stock receives only grain in two good feeds, morning and afternoon. ' That is not a new practice, but is quite efficient and lightens the. routine work on Sundays. The birds come back to their wet mash feed on Mondays with increased relish. The change appears to rest, r the digestive system and stimulate ' the appetite. A light grain feed in the early morning is contrary to the common practice in New Zealand, though popular overseas, but this method of feeding assists in .the daily routine. '■Moreover, early morning is one of the

times when birds, forage- in outside runs most readily, and light feed encourages that.

t The feeding system used during the chicken-rearing season was: Day-old to three days, chick feed, grit, and water; fourth day to 4 weeks, grain and dry mash; until transferred to range, grain, dry , mash, and one feed of wet mash at 11 a.m. '

Wet 1 mash was introduced at this stage to get , the birds used to such feeding before their move to open range. Green food was fed daily after the first week—mainly green oats and silver beet, shredded in the earlier stages /with the cutter illustrated in Fig. 7. This is a household utensil sold for xcutting parsley, mint, etc., and available from most stores. The chickens were put on to whole wheat from five weeks onward.

When the chickens were transferred to colony houses on range the feeding programme adopted was: Early morning and 3 p.m., wet mash; 4.30-5 p.m., grain. j.}

A little dry mash was placed in the troughs at the end of the day during the first week on range; that helps to tide over the change in feeding systems, and the birds go to roost at nightfall with less trouble. Green food was also fed on range, using freshly-cut lucerne and grass clippings. • ) ' '' - .

Pinewood Fence Posts

When fencing was being erected on the plant, ' and all iron posts salvaged from the Wallaceville plant had been used, the problem of obtaining hardwood posts arose. These were not available, but .the difficulty was overcome by using Pinus radiata posts bolted to concrete bases, as illustrated in Fig. 8. That has prevented rotting at ground level, while allowing

posts to be replaced easily if necessary. The concrete bases can be removed from the ground and used again if the fence is pulled down; they cost 4s. 7d. on the farm. New Type of Sack Grab . The food store on the plant has two, floors, which necessitates the use of an electrically-driven hoist. \ The type of sack grab used on this hoist (Fig. 9) has been commented; on favourably by visitors. It was made for the plant, and, as far as is known, such, a device is not available, for purchase at present. It is constructed of lin. x Jin. steel and includes two plates of 3in. diameter studded with spikes. The grab at the plant cost £2 10s. complete. Proposed Breeders' Trials The Department is giving full consideration to . establishing breeders’ trials ,at the plant in 1948. A detailed account of the conditions under which these birds will be run cannot be given at present, but the main object will be to test future breeding birds for producers. Though the competitive, element of a laying trial may be

introduced, it will be secondary to the testing and passing out of stock from which the owner can breed with confidence. Housing on the plant used during the war for raising table birds for the American Forces is being converted to carry the birds under test. It has been possible without undue labour or expense to construct pens adequate for housing 20 birds intensively (Fig. 10). Four such pens have been filled this year to test the suitability of this housing before embarking on the trials next year. Those. who have flocks accredited under the Poultry Flock Improvement Plan will be given priority among entrants to the trials. If insufficient entries are received from owners of accredited flocks, the remaining pens will be open to any poultry producers, a ballot being taken if the total entries exceed the accommodation available. It is hoped to have 72 pens available. Full information about these • proposed trials will be available in pamphlet form later. Photograph in heading by Photo News Ltd.

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WIRE FRAMES • FOR IFCXfit > BROODING - CHICKENS