Info About Agriculture

Poultry Farming

Poultry farming refers to the raising of poultry animals such as chickens, duck and turkeys for their meat or eggs. Over the course of a year around 50 million chickens are reared for both their meat and eggs as a source of food supply, chickens that are reared for their eggs are called egg-laying hens and those reared for their meat are known as broiler chickens. Chickens can lay around 300 eggs a year and naturally live for around 6 years. However in the UK alone more than 29 million eggs are consumed in one day! After a year naturally a hen's capability starts to decline.

The most common form of poultry farming is by using intensive farming techniques, around 74% of poultry meat is produced this way and over 68% of eggs are also produced using the a form of intensive techniques.

For egg laying hens on these types of poultry farms, are reared by being kept in a mass row of cages known as batteries, in these batteries the environmental conditions are controlled the have a powered light supply that is the same of that in the summer months. This is in order to make the chickens produce all year round by thinking it is summer. This is an advantage for farmers as not only do they eggs continue to produce all year round but do to the batteries they are able to fit more chickens in increasing the amount of eggs produced but not costing them more in food and space costs. The form of farming also benefits the consumer as it means we are able to get eggs and meat all year round, due to the way they are kept it also means they are less likely to catch any diseases. This way of production is also at a lower cost of free range production meaning us as consumers don't have to pay a lot. However the cages restrict the birds not allowing them to move about a lot, another problem which can accrue due to the way this technique houses the chickens is osteoporosis, this accrues as during the production of laying an egg a high amount of calcium is produced in order to form the eggshell and the chickens aren't given I high enough amount of dietary calcium to make this level back up again.

For the meat producing chickens, they are floor reared on litter made up of wood shavings and rice hull. Again like egg laying hens they are raised in door with environmentally controlled conditions, farmers also tend to put specific medications in the chickens food and water, they do this in order to prevent them from getting any illnesses or to treat an chicken if it has gotten a disease. Again like egg laying chickens this technique allows consumers to get meat all year round and at a fairly low cost. By keeping the chickens like this also lowers the risk of them getting diseases meaning that we don't have to worry about our meat. However again the environment they are kept in limits the amount the chickens have to move, this form of farming also means that the chickens only have a mere 6 weeks before they are killed, unlike organic chickens which had a good 12 weeks! Not only does the environment limit their movement but the air also tends to be highly polluted due to the ammonia from their waste, this can affect their eyes, cause burns and affect their breathing. Due to the chickens being bred far quicker than they would naturally results in them suffering from leg problems as they can't fully deal with the extra weight so suddenly, this therefore limits their movements which means they aren't able to get away from the heat like they would be able to normally, this often leads to a number of chickens dying from heart failure this is the case for a massive 19 million chickens each year in the UK.

Agriculture & Farming


    The production of food and goods through farming and forestry.

Resources



  • One of the most common problems cattle suffer from is mastitis. Mastitis Treatment for cattle may include antibiotic treatments.

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