Evolution of the poultry industry-guest speaker Georgie Cartanza

On Monday September 10th, 2018 we had a guest speaker in AGRI 130. The guest speaker was Georgie Cartanza and she was giving a speech on The Evolution of the Poultry Industry in Delaware. Georgie Cartanza is an organic chicken farmer in Delaware and a Poultry Extension Agent. Her speech started with her talking about the way her chicken farm was before it was an organic chicken farm and then she talked about the changes and mentioned some of her experiences she has had within the industry. Later this month we will have the opportunity to tour her farm. One thing I found interesting was the way the poultry industry started was by chance. In 1923 the Steele family had placed an order for 50 chicks but received 500 instead. Now DelMarVa (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) is responsible for producing 605 billion chickens annually. Another thing I found interesting is the way the building for the chickens has changed and had new ideas implicated for various reasons like the triple decker chicken house which was designed to be three stories tall but was done to save land space. My favorite fact was from learning more about organic requirements. Some of the requirements for being organic are outside access with a water source, vegetative buffers, and my favorite that you need enrichments or toys for the chicks to play on.

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