7729: Ekologisk slaktkyckling på hemmaproducerat foder och bete efter nöt [Organic Broilers in Floorless Pens on Pasture]

{PROJECT} Ekologisk slaktkyckling på hemmaproducerat foder och bete efter nöt [Organic Broilers in Floorless Pens on Pasture]. Runs 01 January 2000 - 31 October 2004. Project leader(s): Bassler, Arnd, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU.

Summary

Trots att konventionell kycklinguppfödning idag på många håll inte är överensstämmande med idéerna bakom ekologisk djurhållning (t.ex. benproblem och cikulationsrubbningar, preventiv medicinering, ingredienser till foderrationen och året-runt uppfödning inomhus), finns det fortfarande knappast någon ekologisk kycklinguppfödning i Sverige. Projektet syftar till att bidra till att utveckla ett ekologisk system för svensk kycklinguppfödning. Områden som behandlas är:
- Komposition av ett hemmaproducerat foder, inkl. experiment med konservering av proteinkällor som mjölk eller ägg som kycklingfoder.
- Test av långsamväxande raser.
- Kycklingarnas effekt på betet.
- Betets potentiella bidrag till kycklingarnas näringsförsörjning.
Fältstudier görs under sommaren, då kycklingarna hålls i flyttbara burar på betet, som beskrivits av den nordamerikanske bonden Salatin. Den teoretiska bakgrunden är ett blandat odlingssytem med djur där samspelet mellan delarna ses som en potential för att höja efektiviteten i utnyttjandet av lokala resurser. Arbetet kommer att rapporteras i en doktorsavhandling.

Additional Summary

Different aspects of rearing broilers organically in floorless pens on pasture were investigated. The birds and pens were moved daily to fresh pasture. The interdisciplinary studies comprise the birds' growth performance and carcass quality, health, behaviour, leg condition and the birds’ effect on pasture. In the final study, on-farm diets were tested in a feeding experiment indoors.
The data are based on four experiments carried out during 2000 to 2003.
In 2000 and 2002, restricted-fed conventional broilers (ROSS 208) were reared in floorless pens on pasture and in control groups outdoors on straw.
In 2001, two genotypes, ROSS 208 and the slow-growing ISA 657 were reared on three ground types, pasture, outdoors on straw and indoors on wood shavings with either an ad libitum or restricted feeding level.
In 2003, a feeding experiment with slow-growing broilers (ISA 957) fed on-farm diets in a choice feeding system was conducted indoors. Most birds were reared to 12 weeks of age, but ad libitum-fed ROSS birds were reared to 6 weeks. The experimental phase was from ca. 3 weeks to slaughter.
The experiments indicate that under the given conditions
- access to pasture does not offer sufficient protein and metabolizable energy to
allow considerable feed savings in the farm enterprise (Study I)
- moving the floorless pens daily provides favourable conditions to prevent infections
with Eimeria in outdoor broilers. No Campylobacter was found in the birds on
pasture (Study II)
- access to pasture as such appears to play no major role for the broilers'
physical activity (Study III) or leg condition (Study IV)
- broiler chickens on pasture can sustain white clover in a mixed
grass/white clover pasture (Study V)
- with access to high-quality protein during the first three weeks there is a
good potential to produce organic broiler meat with feed produced on-farm in northwestern Europe (Study VI).

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