Karl, it's not government controlled, it's corporate controlled, and an efficient way of producing the healthiest and most productive animals. Nothing forces you to go with them, other than maybe the fact that there aren't many other alternatives if you go the AI route, but it's a fascinating way of doing it in my opinion. We mostly have pretty small herds here, so without a high level of co-operation it wouldn't work. Milk production is becoming more and more concentrated though.
I'm not going to go into politics, because I suspect that we disagree on quite many things, as is usually the case when such matters are discussed, I won't be able to change your mind, you won't be able to change my mind, and we'll manage to alienate most of the people on this thread.
We've gotten 1 egg out of 5 layers today, of which two are broody at the moment. I'm envious of your yield. Our last pullet might start to lay soon, I saw her brother mate her today for the first time. Both are 23 weeks old, he still hasn't crowed a single time, and she hasn't laid any eggs, but the mating seems to be a sign of them reaching sexual maturity. Any of you have experiences with slow maturing Sussexes?
