Pastured Meatbird Processing

Pastured Meatbird Processing

Funding for this presentation was provided by USDA's Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (OASDFR) program (Project number 2009-00705), part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Risk Management Agency (Award # 11-IE-53102-037)

Raising Chickens for Meat on Pasture

A presentation by NCAT - the National Center of Appropriate Technology

Funding for this presentation was provided by USDA's Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (OASDFR) program 1Broiler Processing Two optionsFederal or State Inspected plantsOn-farm under Federal ExemptionLegal in about half the states, including CaliforniaPlan BEFORE StartingFew processors in the US left Booking far in advanceCan be an expensive on-farm investmentAsk local growers for solutions

2RegulationsOn-Farm ProcessingStates can (and do) modifySome states no exemption!Can only sell inside state1,000 & 20,000 Bird LimitsCan sell direct to consumerOn farmOff farmFarmers MarketsAt consumers home State or Federal ProcessingUSDA inspected = FederalUSDA can cross state linesNo bird limitsCan sell anywhereVery few operatingScheduling difficultiesCan be cost prohibitiveNo quality controlIt is illegal to sell birds processed by custom processors!

On Farm Processing at a Glance

Blue allowed on farm w/ PPIARed on farm w/ additional state regsGrey not allowed unless inspectedPPIA=Poultry Products Inspection Act4Preparing for HarvestTypically 7-12 wksDepends on varietyFeed is withheld 8-12 hoursOn farm vs. Off farmPoultry Crates Needed?Gentle HandlingBruising = less $$$Crating density

Depending on the breed used, the weather, and your customers wants, the birds will be ready anywhere from 7 10 weeks for harvest.

You want to pull the food away from the birds 12 hours before they are slaughtered. Withdrawing food helps keep the meat safer and cleaner as it prevents the birds from voiding fecal matter all over themselves (and possibly you) when theyre killed. If you use a USDA processor, they may actually condemn the birds if fecal matter gets on the meat during evisceration.

You must have poultry crates to transport your birds off farm. Poultry crates can be bought like the expensive, but sturdy, plastic crates used by the industry or they can be built inexpensively at home. The birds should be gently handled when catching them up. Rough handling results in bruising that makes for unattractive and unusable spots on the carcass. Its wise to collect the birds after nightfall, as chickens dont see well in the dark. Harvesting during the day can result in more bird stress, especially as they try to avoid being caught up.

Slaughtering takes place either at a state or federally/USDA inspected processing plant. In certain states, farmers are allowed to process poultry on their farm under a federal poultry processing exemption. The laws for slaughtering under the poultry processing exemption vary widely, and are too complicated to cover in any detail here. If you are interested in processing on farm, and theres many reasons you should be, do further research on the regulations before plunging in and purchasing equipment.

Processing at the processor begins by scheduling a processing date. Depending on your processor, some farmers must book their dates before they even have their birds; sometimes the availability of the processor even decides when the birds are raised. You must have poultry crates to transport your birds! Poultry crates can be bought like the expensive, but sturdy plastic crates used by the industry or built inexpensively at home.

The birds should be gently handled when catching them up. Rough handling results in bruising that makes for unattractive and unusable spots on the carcass, especially the wings. Bruises can lead to having to cut off wings, legs, or breasts, causing you to loose money. Its wise to collect the birds after nightfall, as chickens dont see well in the dark. Harvesting during the day can result in more bird stress, especially as they try to avoid being caught up.

Be careful with how many birds you put into the poultry crates, especially during hot weather. Packed too tightly, the birds can suffocate due to piling or overheat in the hot weather. In cold weather, if youre transporting your birds, youll need to place a tarp or some other barrier to keep the your birds from being chilled by the wind and dying of hypothermia.

5Processing Steps & EquipmentKilling

Loosening Feathers

Feather Removal

Evisceration

Chilling

BaggingKilling Cones

Scalder

Plucker

Tables and Sinks

Cooling Tank/Cooler

Special shrink-wrap bagsNext well look at the actual processing steps and the equipment thats used.

Generally, the steps and the equipment used are:

The actual killing the birds are placed upside down into killing cones. The throats are cut on in such a way the arteries in the neck are opened, but the windpipe isnt touched. This causes the chickens to slowly bleed out, their hearts pumping out almost all of the blood. This gives a much cleaner carcass compared to just cutting off the head.

Once the birds are dead, the next step is getting a good scald on the carcass. The carcass is transported to a container of hot water with a temperature between 130 150 degrees F. The birds are then dunked for half a minute or a minute in the hot water. With experience, youll be able to fine tune the time and temperature of you scald to increase its effectiveness. If the waters too cold, the feathers wont loosen, if its too hot, then the skin may get damaged. Agitating the birds up and down in the scald water helps the water penetrate the feathers, and the hot water loosens the feathers from the birds skin. You want to make sure that your scald water stays clean. Remember how we discussed withdrawing feed from the chickens? This helps prevent fecal matter from getting in the scald water.

The wet, scalded chicken is then put into a chicken plucker lined with rubber fingers along with several other birds. The plucker is turned on, and the birds bounce around in it, and after just a few seconds, the feathers are completely stripped off. Hand plucking is a very laborious, soggy chore that can be tolerated the first batch or two for personal use, but if youve got any commercial ambition, youll soon be very willing to spend the money on a good chicken plucker.

The next stage in the process is evisceration. Without going into too much detail, the feet are cut off, and then the innards are removed. Some of the organs may be saved as giblets like the liver, gizzard, and heart. The key here is to not bust open the intestines or the tiny green gall bladder. Once the innards are gone, then the crop, esophagus, and windpipe are removed and disposed of. The necks cut out as well and saved for giblets or stock. Next, on the chickens tail, theres a bump thats actually the birds oil sack. The oil sack and the top of the tail get cut off and discarded and the rest of the tails kept on the bird.

The evisceration process of the bird needs to be done on a sanitary surface, like a stainless steel table, and requires a good amount of pressurized, potable water (like from a hose) as well as tables and sinks or other ways of trapping the blood and water spilled. The surfaces must be sanitized often to keep the chicken as clean as possible.

Next, the carcasses must be chilled as quickly as possible. Federal Regulations actually require that the carcass of a bird under 8 lbs be chilled to 40F within 6 hours of processing. This is typically done by immersing the bird in an ice water batch in a chill tank. The chill tank can be home made, or bought, but must have a capacity that will be big enough to hold both your birds plus a large amount of ice. The cooling from the ice bath allows the bird to not only reach a safe temperature to prevent bacterial growth, but also lets the bird go through rigor mortis after their death, and prevents your customer from getting tough meat.

After the chickens are chilled, they are then drained and packaged. One innovative method for bagging is to use specialized shrink-wrap bagging available to pastured poultry producers. The bags look like normal plastic bags; the chicken is placed inside the bag and tied off. The bag is then placed in hot water, like that used in the scalder, and the plastic bag shrinks wraps around the bird, producing an attractive, tightly bagged bird.

Obviously, theres a lot more that could be said about processing poultry on farm, but we just did a good overview of the process, and you should have a much better idea of what it takes to process on farm.

6Processing

Now well take a quick visual look at what the processing process looks like on the farm. Well start at the top left corner of the slide.

This is the killing station. Here, the broilers are placed upside down in the killing cones mounted on the wall. A birds head hangs out of the cone, and this is exposing the throat which is cut. Note the piece of roofing under the cones. The farmers set this up to collect and funnel the blood to a bucket to help keep things tidy.

Following the arrow to the next slide, this is a picture of the scalder. In the middle of the top part of the picture, youll see a place to hang the dead chickens by their feet. This is a dunker, which automatically moves the birds up and down in the scald water, preventing a person from having to stand there and do it all day.

After a good scald, the birds are passed over to the plucker we talked about earlier. Notice the rubber fingers in the plucker. The bottom disk is spinning when the birds are dropped in, while the sides stay still. As the birds bounce around, the rubber fingers pull the feathers off. The black hose is a water hose thats been hooked up to help rinse out the feathers as theyre plucked off of the birds.

Next, we see the evisceration set up that this farm uses. Youll notice the bowls, those are for collecting the livers and necks from the birds. Note the sink in the background and the multiple hoses for workers to keep things clean as they work.

Next you can see the tub thats being used as a chill tank for the poultry. It would be filled up with ice water for the birds to cool down after theyve been processed.

Finally, you can see here the final station. Here, the farmers got labels, a scale, and other items to help bag, label, and weigh the birds so that they can then be taken to be refrigerated or picked up directly by waiting customers.

7KillingFirst step in processingBirds restrained in killing conesRelaxed byRestraintUpside downThroat is cut, severing arteriesWindpipe is left intactBirds heart pumps most of the blood outPeaceful death (as possible) from blood loss

ScaldingScalding dunking birds in hot waterScalding loosens the birds feathersTypically gas firedScald temp. & time for broilers:~ 145 F for around 1 minutes Immediately after bleed out!Temperature is important Too hot = partly cooking the birdToo cold = poor feather removal

PluckingHand plucking is VERY (!) labor intensiveAutomatic pluckers are the standardCan cleanly pluck 4-5 birds in 20 seconds!

EviscerationHead & Feet RemovalOil Sack RemovalOrgan RemovalCut below breastRemove innardsCut around ventSave liver, heart, & gizzard Crop & Esophagus Removal

Carcass Cool-OffRegulated by Law for Safety Under 40 F with in 4 hoursInhibits bacteria growthSlows spoilageLengthens shelf-lifeUsually done in a chill tank 1 - 2 lbs ice per birdFilled with cool water

Packaging & StorageBag birds after chillingRemove air from bagsAvoid freezer burnShrink Wrap bags attractive & effectiveClean fresh birds can stay good a weekFrozen birds stay good for around a yearChicken freezes around 28 FMake sure you have freezer/fridge space!

Shop to Processing Shed

Farm processes 10,000 chickens/yr

Mobile Processing Units (MPU)ResourcesOrganizationsATTRA the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service http://www.attra.orgAmerican Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA) http://www.apppa.org/MagazinesGRIT! APPPA MagazineATTRA PublicationsPastured Poultry NutritionMeat Chicken Breeds for Pastured ProductionSmall Scale Poultry ProcessingBooksAPPPA. 2006. Raising Poultry on Pasture Ten Years of Success. 246 p.

ATTRA Publications

16ResourcesPoultry Products Inspection Act Exemption - http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oppde/rdad/fsisnotices/poultry_slaughter_exemption_0406.pdfProcessing Equipment Featherman Equipment Company - http://www.featherman.net/Poultry Man LLC - http://www.pasafarming.org/resource/PoultryMan.pdfPoultry Shrink BagsCornerstone Farm Ventures - http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/Poultry Labels and DesignGrowers Discount Labels - http://www.growersdiscountlabels.com/