The Effect of Removing Synthetic Amino Acids from the Poultry Ration on the Final Live and Dressed Weight of Birds from the Sheepdrove Organic Farm Organic Silvo-Poultry System

Summary

Organic standards and aspirations are moving towards the removal of synthetic amino acids from organic poultry rations. Sheepdrove Organic Farm has already removed synthetic amino acids from the rations fed to its chickens. Data was collected on live and dressed weight of processed birds, before, during and after the removal of synthetic amino acids from the ration. There does appear to be a detrimental effect on the final weight (both live and dressed) of birds raised without synthetic amino acids although this loss of weight has been overcome with the increase in production time from 10 to 11 weeks.