Poultry Your Way - Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems ...

MANAGEMENT
ALTERNATIVES
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FARM PROFILE • Pasture: Day-range
The process will generate very little wastewater and less than two pounds of offal and feathers per bird. Yet Frank
and Kay want to be sure they meet legal requirements. They built a 250-gallon holding tank for wastewater, which
they will pump out and irrigate onto land. They are building a new three-bin composter to compost entrails and
feathers.
When farmers venture into processing, they leave the traditional world of farming and enter the world of food
processing—for Kay this also means educating consumers about food nutrition. She often refers them to a
website, www.eatwild.com, which extols the virtues of pasture-raised animal products.
One clear image of what the Joneses are trying to achieve became evident October 5, 2002. They hosted a party
and treated guests to a taste test, serving three kinds of chickens: two of them organically grown free-range
birds of two different breeds and one from the supermarket. Labeled 1, 2, and 3, the differences were easy to
see. Roasted the same way, two were firm and the muscle very distinct, one was softer in texture, juicier, and the
muscle broke apart easily. Transparent beakers of fluid from the roasting pans told a story. The juices from the
free-range poultry were “juices,” while those from the supermarket bird divided into two levels, juices topped by a
floating layer of liquid yellow fat.
Still, guests liked the chicken from the supermarket just fine, finding it juicier, tastier, and softer in texture than the
chickens produced the open-range way. People have to want to eat healthier food, and want it enough to seek it
out and pay more for it. The Joneses know such folks exist, and they’re betting on them.