[rant]Cage free eggs[rant]

I was just looking over some job postings from Foster Farms (no I have no intention of getting a job there.) One job description would have me oversee lots of chicks.

I would assume there is a difference in the strategy for raising chickens for meat vs. for egg production.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I was just looking over some job postings from Foster Farms (no I have no intention of getting a job there.) One job description would have me oversee lots of chicks.
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Would you consider the job if they were Asian chicks?
 
Sac Arrow said:
I was just looking over some job postings from Foster Farms (no I have no intention of getting a job there.) One job description would have me oversee lots of chicks.

I would assume there is a difference in the strategy for raising chickens for meat vs. for egg production.
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Completely different genetics - almost not even the same animal. A broiler bird goes from hatch to slaughter in less than 50 days weighing +5 lbs. It takes us 130 days from hatch to get an egg layer up to 2.8 lbs and ready to lay eggs. Then she stays on the job for another 70 - 90 weeks of production.

Broilers are rarely grown in cages, but it is becoming a more common practice due to disease and food safety concerns.


Eggman
 
James_Dean said:
Appreciate it. I've lived this business since I could walk and am very passionate about it. Some other interesting tidbits.

1. We have machines that can wash, inspect, sanitize, crack, and inspect the inside contents of an egg. We can separate the white and yolk and the machine can do 200,000 eggs/hr. Our largest plant has three of these machines and processes nearly 2 billion eggs per year.

2. We have machines of similar capacity that wash, inspect with cameras, ping the shell for cracks, weight each egg, sort them for individual packing lanes, and put them in cartons. 200,000 eggs per hour and never touched by a human. The machine can even tell where and how severe and egg might be cracked. We can tell the machine to only put the most slightly cracked eggs in the pack and can put that crack down in the package.

3. The average American eats 260 eggs per year. Approximately 1/3 of those are in product form such as egg patties, powder, mayonnaise, or ice cream.

4. We are constantly battling with fluid milk for lowest cost protein per serving. We are slowly gaining every year as efficiencies climb.

5. We are starting to use drones with thermographic cameras to precisely dial in our environmental controls for uniformity.

6. We specifically order a blend of five different micron size limestone particles to feed so that the bird dissolves them evenly in the gizzard over 24 hours so she always has adequate blood calcium to make the shell.

7. We expect to get 500 eggs for a hen before she is no longer economically viable.

8. We use near infrared spectroscopy on incoming feed ingredients to precisely tailor rations. We have a program that uses up to 25 parameters to reformulate nutrition so that the bird has what she needs without giving excess.

9. That excess ends up in the manure which we sell to farmers to use in lieu of commercial fertilizers. We control the moisture and let it compost to help with pest control and odor.

10. It takes one employee 10 hours per day to care for 300,000 birds.


I could talk about this stuff for hours. Thanks all for indulging me.

Eggman
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I hope you'll come to Gaston's this year and share more!! FASCINATING.
 
James_Dean said:
Actually....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...gstanding-warnings-about-dietary-cholesterol/
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COOL! And now having weed with your scrambled eggs is good, too! (see screenshot below from the news article above). :rofl:

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TangoWhiskey said:
I hope you'll come to Gaston's this year and share more!! FASCINATING.
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I came to Gaston's in 2006 or 2007 for the POA event with the wife and kids and we went back a few more times after that for the fishing. Not sure I've got the stones to run the 310 in there though.
 
James_Dean said:
I came to Gaston's in 2006 or 2007 for the POA event with the wife and kids and we went back a few more times after that for the fishing. Not sure I've got the stones to run the 310 in there though.
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You need to fly that twin into Mountain Home and then we'll all ferry you back into Gaston's!! ;-)
 
TangoWhiskey said:
COOL! And now having weed with your scrambled eggs is good, too! (see screenshot below from the news article above). :rofl:

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Certainly, it's good to have the healthy option when you get the Endo munchies.
 
James_Dean said:
Completely different genetics - almost not even the same animal. A broiler bird goes from hatch to slaughter in less than 50 days weighing +5 lbs. It takes us 130 days from hatch to get an egg layer up to 2.8 lbs and ready to lay eggs. Then she stays on the job for another 70 - 90 weeks of production.

Broilers are rarely grown in cages, but it is becoming a more common practice due to disease and food safety concerns.


Eggman
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So... After the 70-90 weeks of egg laying production do you chop them up for dog food or do they get sold as people food???:dunno:
 
N801BH said:
So... After the 70-90 weeks of egg laying production do you chop them up for dog food or do they get sold as people food???:dunno:
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Layers aren't people food chickens, so I would suppose they end up in the pet food market.
 
N801BH said:
So... After the 70-90 weeks of egg laying production do you chop them up for dog food or do they get sold as people food???:dunno:
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They get humanely euthanized. The carcasses are finely ground and an enzyme culture is added. This mixture is brought to a plant to be mixed with carriers, dried, and finished where it is ready to be added to pet food. They used to go into soup and other human products, but the genetics and management have gotten to the point where it is no longer economical to run them through a packing process.

Eggman
 
James_Dean said:
They get humanely euthanized. The carcasses are finely ground and an enzyme culture is added. This mixture is brought to a plant to be mixed with carriers, dried, and finished where it is ready to be added to pet food. They used to go into soup and other human products, but the genetics and management have gotten to the point where it is no longer economical to run them through a packing process.

Eggman
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What about feathers?
 
James_Dean said:
The enzyme package takes care of the feathers, quills, beaks, and toe nails. It is pretty slick.
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Cool, so I take it the enzyme residue is also used a food meal product? Also sounds like something that would end up in cosmetics.
 
Henning said:
Cool, so I take it the enzyme residue is also used a food meal product? Also sounds like something that would end up in cosmetics.
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The whole carcass goes through the grinder immediately after euthanization. The enzymes are added to the slurry to process. It isn't a separate product.

As a side note, we do have products that end up in cosmetics. We're part of a group that figured out how to pull the membrane out of the inside of the eggshell and solubilize it. Lots of really cool goodies in that tiny package.

http://biova.com/
 
James_Dean said:
The whole carcass goes through the grinder immediately after euthanization. The enzymes are added to the slurry to process. It isn't a separate product.

As a side note, we do have products that end up in cosmetics. We're part of a group that figured out how to pull the membrane out of the inside of the eggshell and solubilize it. Lots of really cool goodies in that tiny package.

http://biova.com/
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Most people have no clue what goes into cosmetics. I did kelp harvesting for a while, amazing what all that goes in.
 
James_Dean said:
They get humanely euthanized. The carcasses are finely ground and an enzyme culture is added. This mixture is brought to a plant to be mixed with carriers, dried, and finished where it is ready to be added to pet food. They used to go into soup and other human products, but the genetics and management have gotten to the point where it is no longer economical to run them through a packing process.

Eggman
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Whose job is it to keep track of which hens stopped laying?

(how do you know?)
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Whose job is it to keep track of which hens stopped laying?

(how do you know?)
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There are ways to check, but they aren't routinely done. Easiest way to tell visually is to see if her comb is developed. If not she isn't producing the hormones that are required to have the reproductive process going. Not very common.

We track flock rate of lay daily with thousands of counters on egg belts and can tell if there was some type of general production issue. Disease, lighting, or feed issue.
 
Had my bride pick up a dozen of James' Goldrich Grade A Egg on the left, Costco Maxim's Grade AA Egg on the right. No color or picture enhancement or manipulation.

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Coincidentally I looked for the Goldrich eggs in my local Walmart yesterday. Didn't see any.
 
Elizabeth Walmart sounds like a character in a romance novel.
 
Hey now, if I have to fake the metro thing at the club, I need some working knowledge of them, right?
 
Trust me, the day after I would turn gay women would start falling out of the woodwork. Kinda the same way that happens after you get married.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Had my bride pick up a dozen of James' Goldrich Grade A Egg on the left, Costco Maxim's Grade AA Egg on the right. No color or picture enhancement or manipulation.

480bc1afc82a26c4b00a8c8764881311.jpg
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Did you detect any difference in the color or firmness in the whites? I think those are a really great product and hope the category grows. It ain't cheap though.
 
James_Dean said:
Did you detect any difference in the color or firmness in the whites? I think those are a really great product and hope the category grows. It ain't cheap though.
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Yeah, I can see the difference in both right there.
 
Our Walmart seems to carry either Sunny Meadow or Egglands Best. I never see the brand James mentions.
 
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