Georgie’s Poultry Farm (Dover) 9-10-16

Ms. Georgie’s poultry farm is a farm that produces organic chicken for consumption under the Purdue brand. Ms. Georgie has only begun producing organic chicken in the past 3 years, but has been in the business for over 20 years. When compared to non-organic chicken farms, organic chicken farms have more regulations to follow, including: “playgrounds” (i.e. ramps and bully boxes) for the chickens, access to the outside (even though most chickens are not always trying to be outside) and windows (i.e. natural light). Organic feeds are also more difficult to come by, being imported from countries such as Turkey and Argentina, thus helping to explain the increased cost of organic chicken in stores compared to non-organic. Another interesting feature of Ms. Georgie’s farm was her use of the manure. Rather then being considered a waste product, Ms. Georgie would gather it and sell it to a grain farmer who would then use it as fertilizer. This recycling of products is so important, not just in farming. Lastly, what surprised me the most was the differences between the public’s perception of how broiler chickens are produced compared to the truth. While I never truly bought into the media’s perception thanks to my own background and knowledge as a Pre-Vet/Animal Science student at the University of Delaware, actually seeing it all first-hand allowed me to confirm what is true and what is false. I was very impressed with the efficiency of Ms. Georgie’s farm, having 4 houses with around 156,000 broiler chickens at any given time while running it all with just herself and a a few helpers, all while also managing to follow all of Purdue’s guidelines.

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