How Mary's Chickens does things different
First published to the newsletter June 29, 2020
Hello,
I've been getting some questions about our chicken, and I decided to go right to the source: David Pitman! He and his family own Mary's, which supplies all our chicken.
How do you treat your birds differently than other companies?
We work hard for our birds. The rice hull bedding we use, we give them double what other companies do. If you think about it, they're walking and sleeping on the bedding, so we want it to be soft for them. So we give them a lot of it.
We also rotate and clean it frequently so they stay dry and healthy. We also give them 30% more space per bird than most other farms, so they're not crowded.
We also NEVER feed antibiotics, so they're not being over-medicated. And we worked with PETA, Temple Grandin, and the HSUS to use a state-of-the-art slaughter system so we know the animals are completely calm and asleep when they're harvested.
Why do the chickens have corn in their feed?
Well, there are other feed options, especially for egg layers. They have more options because their nutritional requirements are different. But meat birds need a more specific diet, so replacement is very difficult. You can't feed them more than 20% wheat, for example, because the gluten will hurt their stomachs. We've actually tried non-corn feeds a few times and have always gone back to basics: the birds do well on it and it's cost effective.
The Pitmans at one of the family turkey farms
Speaking of cost, what's your view on the current feed cost increase?
This is my 21st year of growing with my family, and my father has more than 40 years of experience. And this is the first time I've seen something like this.
In the past, price increases are usually due to drought so we can on count prices coming down next growing season. But this is different. The price of the organic soy we use for the organic birds has doubled. A lot of this is from China buying American crops. There's also been concern about the weather: if we get rain in July we'll be ok, but the crop farms been dry recently.
Prices are up across the board. It's about a 15% increase in everything. Labor, packaging, box costs, even electricity is going up. And that may be a long-term increase.
What does Mary's do to be more sustainable?
We do quite a few things. We have two separate solar systems at our plants, with more plans in the works. We also use rice hull bedding for the birds. These rice hulls are the outer shells of rice that are a byproduct of the Sacramento rice processing.
Normally the hulls are thrown away or burned, but they work for the birds. And when the bedding is used, we sell it to a compost company that turns it into organic fertilizer for agriculture in the Central Valley. So we help reduce chemical fertilizer use as well.
Best,
AJ with Baron's
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