Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
extensive systems. Free-range extensive production provides little or no shelter, and the
birds scavenge for food on all parts of the farm. Backyard extensive production poultry
range free during the day but are confined during the night in some type of shelter. They
are usually fed some small amount of grain in the morning. Semiintensive production of
poultry confines the birds to some space with access to an enclosed outside area. Feed is
available inside the housing unit. Intensive systems are found in both mixed and land-
less systems in all countries of the world. All landless systems use some type of inten-
sive production system characterized by battery cages (for egg production), slatted
floors, or deep litter. The advantage of intensive systems is a high productivity and effi-
ciency. For example, a free-range extensive chicken will produce 20 to 30 eggs per year
while a chicken raised in a battery cage will produce 180 to 220 eggs per year.
7
Geese
and ducks are rarely raised under intensive systems.
Chickens require a mixed diet of relatively concentrated feeds. Nearly half of a
typical diet is composed of coarsely ground grains of maize, sorghum, barley, oats,
wheat, or rice. Around 10 percent of wheat or rice bran (a milling by-product) helps
to add fiber and bulk to the diet. Much of the protein in the diet is provided by the
meal of soybean, peanut, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, or sesame remaining after
oils have been removed. Dried and ground alfalfa should be fed if the chickens
cannot feed on fresh pasture. Salt must be provided in the feed. About 2 percent of
the diet should be bone meal to provide calcium for bone growth. Ground limestone,
marble chips, or ground oyster shells should be fed to help with grinding in the
gizzard.
10
The nutrition requirements given above are general and change according
to the age, purpose, and confinement of the chickens.
Ducks kept in confinement have similar feed requirements as chickens. A rec-
ommended commercial feed ration consists of 46 percent crushed grain, 18 percent
bran, 18 percent pollard, 10 percent meat meal, 2 percent soybean meal, 3 percent
alfalfa meal, and 2 percent milk powder for calcium.
11
Smaller flocks of ducks
raised under free-range conditions have a much more varied diet. In fact, in integrated
rice - duck systems, ducks are a major factor in control of harmful insects and snails, as
shown in Figure 7.12. In Japan, the Aigamo breed is used for rice production. Nearly
400 seven-day-old ducklings per hectare are released into a rice field about 10 days
after transplanting. The floating, nitrogen-fixing fern, Azolla, serves as food for the
ducklings. As they grow, they also feed on snails and grassy weeds, reducing the
total weed biomass 52 to 58 percent and reducing the population of the golden apple
snail (a rice-eating snail) by 74 to 84 percent.
12
Geese have different dietary requirements than chickens and ducks. Under inten-
sive production systems young goslings are started on a prepared ration of ground
grains and other ingredients similar to that of chickens. Green plants are mixed in
with the feed and by 5 to 6 weeks of age the birds should be feeding primarily from
pasture grasses. They prefer more succulent clovers, bluegrass, timothy, and brome-
grass. A good-quality pasture will support 50 to 100 geese on 1 ha. Under less intensive,
free-range conditions, geese may be fed a limited amount of small grains after hatching
but then live exclusively on grasses in the neighborhood. For the production of goose
liver (foie gras) in Europe, adult geese are force fed wet maize to enlarge the liver
before killing.
