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You are here: Home / Archives for chicken safety

Meet the Chicken Farmers! #ChickenDotCa

February 24, 2014 by Wendy S

Two years ago, I got to do one of my most favourite activities as a CFC Ambassador.  I got to interview a Chicken Farmer! John Opsteen is very passionate about the safety of his chickens and the safety of the product is he producing.  

Read the full interview here — Keeping our families safe is a Chicken Farmer’s #1 Priority

Not everyone is going to be able to chat with a Chicken Farmer about things related to chickens, chicken farming and the chicken industry in Canada.  This is where the Chicken Farmers of Canada comes in. 

Our main responsibility is to ensure that our 2,700 farmers produce the right amount of fresh, safe, high quality chicken to meet Canada’s needs.

Our second responsibility is to represent the interests of chicken farmers and the Canadian chicken industry. CFC plays a key role in developing, partnering or managing programs for Canada’s chicken farmers that prove our producers continue to grow the high quality chicken that Canadians trust.

 Meet the Chicken Farmers - #ChickenDotCa

Who are Chicken Farmers?

  • 2,700 farmers pride themselves on raising safe, fresh, high-quality chicken that Canadians can trust.
  • Chickens in Canada are raised on sustainable and innovative farms from coast to coast.
  • Farmers and their families provide a public good through being responsible stewards of the land and we are committed to using sustainable, good production practices, and to leaving the smallest possible imprint on the environment.

 Who benefits?

  • Our industry provides benefits for communities in rural and urban areas. It means economic and social sustainability for the towns and regions whose future is tightly intertwined with the success of the Canadian  agricultural sector. Farmers provide direct jobs as well as jobs for those who work in processing, retailing and those companies that provide service and inputs. For more information, watch this short video.
  • Consumers get good value for their money: quality food at reasonable prices.

What happens on the farm?

  • From the moment they arrive on the farm to the time they’re shipped to the consumer, the quality and welfare of our chickens is our biggest concern. We give them great food, clean water, and let them roam freely around the barns.
  • What chickens are fed has a direct impact on both the flavour and nutrition of the meat, so it’s important that all chickens are fed the right way. The main ingredient of all chicken feed (over 88%) is grains and grain by-products, protein-producing seeds, and meal made from them such as canola or soybean meal. So, in essence, all chicken is “grain fed.” In much smaller quantities (around 10%), various other protein sources such as meat and bone meal/vegetable fats, are added to improve the nutritional content, taste and texture of the feed. In much, much smaller quantities (1.5%), mineral and vitamin supplements are commonly added to prevent any nutrient deficiencies. For more information, see “What Chickens Eat”.
  • Chicken farmers in Canada are subject to an auditable Animal Care Program, which monitors and enforces the high animal care standards on Canadian chicken farms.
  • The government-recognized, mandatory, on-farm food safety program also emphasizes animal health, cleanliness and safety throughout each step of the production cycle.
Chicken Farmers - Animal Care Chicken Farmers - OFFSAP

Some misconceptions

  • No chickens are ever given hormones or steroids in Canada – the practice has been illegal since the 1960s.
  • Antibiotics can used help to maintain healthy birds or treat sick ones, thereby ensuring a safe food supply for consumers and to prevent any potential food safety problems. Government-verified withdrawal times and random testing mean that the chicken that you buy in grocery stores or in restaurants does not contain any antibiotic residues. The chicken industry proactively manages antibiotic use in order to provide continued confidence to consumers and government. More information on antibiotics can be found here.

Lots more information available!

The Chicken Farmers of Canada want everyone to know exactly what is going on!  They have a great website with a lot of information and a place for your to ask questions!

Please check out their websites — www.chicken.ca and www.chickenfarmers.ca

And follow them on Facebook and twitter — Canadian Chicken and @ChickenFarmers

 

Filed Under: Ambassador, Chicken Farmers Tagged With: chicken, chicken safety, ChickenDotCa

Keeping our families safe is a Chicken Farmer’s #1 Priority

September 25, 2012 by Wendy S

(From chicken.ca — Not John’s farm)

After his 4th or 5th time out to the barn, but not his last for the day, John Opsteen took time out of his day to talk to me about being a chicken farmer.

John Opsteen and his brother are a 2nd generation chicken farmers. In 1971, John’s parents bought their first chicken farm. In 1991, his brother bought his farm and later, in 1999, John got his own farm after graduating from the University of Guelph.

John had grand plans for this first farm which included a new barn and a lot of renovations.  However, due to an unfortunate fire at his parents’ farm, 10,000 chickens moved into John’s old boiler-heated barn.  What made things a bit more difficult was that the previous farm owners were still living in the farm house until their new home was ready.  John lived in a trailer on the property for many months, sometimes sleeping on the barn steps where it was warmer.

13 years later, John is very proud to talk about his 18,000+ square foot barn with a computer-operated heating and ventilation system and automated feeder that is home to 46,000 chickens.  My jaw dropped to the floor when I heard that number.  That is a lot of chickens!!

The safety of those chickens is John’s number one priority.  The chickens are “free run” — they are free to move about, but stay inside the barn as Canada’s weather doesn’t always lend itself to the environment that is best for the chickens.  Keeping the chickens in the barn keeps them safe from diseases and they are protected from wild animals.  As John checks the barn, each time taking up to 2 hours, he’s monitoring their food, their health, the temperature, the conditions in the barn and so many other things.  Providing a healthy, safe product to Canadians is very important to John.

To ensure that John is providing the best chickens to Canadians, a yearly audit is done.  Everything from the cleanliness of the straw and shavings to where the food comes from and how it’s stored is checked to make sure that there is no cross contamination.

There are over 1000 chicken farmers in Ontario and 4 of them are right here in Halton region.  Each farmer has a contract with a processing plant.  The processing plant has specific expectations for the farmer to meet.  This starts by them providing the chicks.

The process starts at the “hatcher” where there are hens and roosters so that the eggs get fertilized.  21 days after incubation, the chicks hatch and are delivered to John’s farm.  All 46, 000 of them!

(Oh, in case you were wondering like I was, eggs are produced at “layers” where there aren’t any roosters.)

There are two different types of chickens that John raises — Cockerel (males) and Pullet (females).  It takes 5 weeks for the chickens to be full grown.  The males will get to be 2.0kg and the females 1.7kg.

In the dark of night, when the chickens are most calm,  the processor sends the chicken catchers to collect the chickens.  About 7 hours later, 8 transport trucks roll away with all of the chickens.  John’s chickens will end up at Swiss Chalet (the males) and KFC (the females).

Once the chickens are gone, John cleans and disinfects the barn in preparation for the next crop of chickens.  But they don’t come right away because allowing time for the barn to sit empty will make sure that nothing is transferred from one crop to the next.  It is a 9 week cycle, so the barn sits empty for 4-5 weeks.

John isn’t sitting still during those weeks though. Part way through that month, his brother’s chicken barn will be emptied and ready for cleaning.  They work together, especially at cleaning time.

During our conversation, I asked John what happened to his parents farm.  They still own the farm, but without a barn, they don’t have any chickens.  What keeps them busy is a huge, charity garage sale that they organize, using one of their garages as storage for the items that people donate.

Also, I found out that John also gives back to his community by educating others about chickens and chicken farming.   He won an award for the great work that he has done!

I’m sure that after we got off the phone, John headed back out to the barn to check everything one more time.   Thank you John for the hard work that you do and for caring so much about providing safe, healthy chickens for us to eat!

Want to meet a chicken farmer from Nova Scotia?? Read Lynette’s post!
 
And a farmer from Saskatchewan!  Read Stacey’s post!

I am proudly participating in the Chicken Farmers of Canada program by ShesConnected.  I received compensation in exchange for my participation in this campaign.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

Filed Under: Ambassador, Chicken Farmers Tagged With: chicken farmer, chicken safety, safety

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mapsgirl@gmail.com

Why “mapsgirl” ?

Wendy is a cartographer! She draws maps!

When not mapping, Wendy is also a mom to two daughters. They are the inspiration of this blog. Passionate about child passenger safety, Wendy was a certified Car Seat Technician in Ontario, Canada from 2008 to 2020. [Read More …]

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