I want to raise my CX a little larger than normal. I was wondering if there would be any problems raising them to 10 lbs live weight Im guessing they'll hit that around 11 weeks? My plan is to feed 100 CXs 1500-2000 lbs of feed, they will be free ranged fed FF and all the scraps I can get from my job, 100s of lbs of garbage produce?
There is a strain that lives longer (14 weeks) if you use the 7 week strain they might have more problems as they gain weight. If they get to heavy they can't walk (more than usual) and sit in their manure and get breast blisters like mad. At the seven week mark for mine they were anywhere from 6 to 8 lbs maybe even more, I haven't raised them for a year because I went to the Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys. Maybe conduct an experiment to see when the cornish hit your desired weight and the age that happened. That way if you were to have more and it fell through it would not hurt income. You could also try to make a different strain of cornish by making a cross. The broiler was first created with a double breasted Cornish male on a tall big boned Plymouth Rock female. What would happen if you played a little there using big Plymouth rocks to get a bigger Cornish cross.
i usually raise mine to 10 weeks, but I don't feed high protein feed. my biggest rooster weighed in at 9 lb butchered weight.
What's high I was thinking 20% start to finish? I have heard people going as high as 30% and as low as 12%? I don't necessarily want a slow growing bird I just would like a carcass about 7.5 pounds, I think what I will do is weigh them fairly often and when a have 10 or so about 10lbs live I will cull the bigger ones. What do you guys recommend? I just asked this because I don't want to have any loses because of age. I was also thinking that by soaking feed and free ranging they would have less troubles.
The broiler is a result of a cross something like that followed by 50+ years of selective breeding, genetic testing, and study. You're not going to get a bigger cornish cross without putting in a ton of time, effort and money. 19disbre - there are people that raise them that big - the big issue is that feed conversion drops as they get older. 2-2.5:1 is about best case with 5-7lb birds. With 10lb birds I'd be surprised if you weren't closer to 3:1 - I think you're going to be looking at way more food than you think.
When we have poor hatches of our own meat stock birds, we use the CX (COBB 500) as a stop gap measure to replenish the freezer. To think that a backyard birder could duplicate that gene mix is sheer fantasy. With time, a fair shaped, and sized bird can be raised by the backyard enthusiast. However, the result will never really compare, not as apples to apples, or oranges to oranges, for they are two entirely different classes. Both birds can do well with good husbandry practices. As an attribute barnyard birds are more forgiving with quite a bit more vigor, though not the greatest feed to weight gain ratio, delicious taste. Whereas the attribute of the CX is precisely feed to weight gain with a broader variety of cooking methods available. COBB and the others all have performance and feed objectives available online- http://www.cobb-vantress.com/produc...-nutrition-supplement/pdf-downloads-languages The professionals have learned not to take the birds past certain ages and weights needed for the consumer marketplace. They are also aware of the pending mortality rates when the birds organs can longer support themselves. The wise home grower must to be diligent, for to have late term deaths in a flock of CX birds ultimately raises the cost of all. We do successfully raise our own meat bird flock. They have Dark Cornish in the mix. I have mentioned in the past that when the carcass weight is not too big, just cook two.
I don't know if you are still looking for information, but this thread has some good info about free ranging Cornish cross. I think they may have had some that got bigger, I can't remember. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-your-cornish-x-meaties-tractors-do-not-count