- Apr 10, 2011
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Just processed our first batch of Freedom Rangers. I've been recording their feed intake since getting them to get a sense of their feed efficiency, and now have the results. We started with 102 birds (ordered 100, FR hatchery sent 2 extra), and lost 7 or 8 in the brooder, I think from overcrowding. Only lost 1 that I know of once we put them outside, it looks like it got on the wrong side of the electric netting and got zapped too much trying to get back in. "User Error" aside, they seem to be a hardy bird (none of the random deaths of leg problems we saw with our 50 CX, only 35 of which made it to processing day!)
We raised them out on our cow pastures in the electric netting, setting up a new paddock for them about every week. The pasture quality wasn't great; cows had clipped a heavily white clover pastured pretty short, but then it didn't regrow much at all with the height and dry spell that coincided with the FRs going out on it. The FRs were fed Poulin 20% Broiler Crumbles not quite free choice - they were fed in late afternoon on average and would run out sometime late morning or early afternoon. Their rate of intake by about week 6 or 7 was around 3 bags of feed over 4 days.
We processed 60 of them (randomly selected) this past Sunday at 10 weeks of age. We recorded the dressed weights for half of them, and they ranged from about 3.5 pounds with a few up to 5.5 pounds. The average weight for them came out to 4.6 pounds. Freedom Ranger Hatchery notes their are 3 strains of FRs; I noticed the "Tricolor" variety (red type feathering fading into barred type in the legs) to be the largest, the "Yellow" (a sort of buff-red) to be the smallest, and the "Redbro" (red type, and the majority of the birds) to fall in the middle.
Up to the 10 weeks, I fed them 33 bags of (50#) feed (3 bags of 28%, then transitioning to the 20%). So,
33 bags x 50 pounds = 1650 pounds feed
1650 pounds feed / 92 birds (might be 94) = 17.9 pounds feed per bird
17.9 pounds feed / 4.6 pounds avg weight = 3.9 pounds feed per pound dressed gain
That's almost a 4:1 feed conversion ratio, which strikes me as high compared to what I expected based on other readings. At roughly 26 cents a pound for my feed, that's $1/pound costs to grow. We are selling ours at market for $3.50 a pound, so it is still profitable but it puts our hourly wage lower than planned for.
My Questions:
I'm curious what others have experienced the FR efficiency to be? As mentioned, their pasture was not lush, but at the same time I did not see them foraging much for what was available. On some of the relatively cooler mornings and evenings they'd scratch around some, but they did a fair about of walk-to-feeder-walk-back-to-shade thing.
They didn't have 24/7 feed as mentioned. Should I further restrict feed and force to to graze more? Or would they just grow less/slower instead? I had visited another farm that raises around 800 FRs a year, who claimed they feed 90lbs of feed for 450 birds a day. I was doing almost half that for 1/4 the birds! FYI, I visited on a fairly cool, overcast day, and his FRs weren't very active either.
I also have a set of Rosambro from MT-DI Hatchery going to, and recording their feed as well. They are super hardy as well, have only lost I think one bird, the day after we received them. I'm going to process some of them at 9 weeks, along with the remaining FRs which will be at 13 weeks (for roasters). Will be interesting to compare.
We raised them out on our cow pastures in the electric netting, setting up a new paddock for them about every week. The pasture quality wasn't great; cows had clipped a heavily white clover pastured pretty short, but then it didn't regrow much at all with the height and dry spell that coincided with the FRs going out on it. The FRs were fed Poulin 20% Broiler Crumbles not quite free choice - they were fed in late afternoon on average and would run out sometime late morning or early afternoon. Their rate of intake by about week 6 or 7 was around 3 bags of feed over 4 days.
We processed 60 of them (randomly selected) this past Sunday at 10 weeks of age. We recorded the dressed weights for half of them, and they ranged from about 3.5 pounds with a few up to 5.5 pounds. The average weight for them came out to 4.6 pounds. Freedom Ranger Hatchery notes their are 3 strains of FRs; I noticed the "Tricolor" variety (red type feathering fading into barred type in the legs) to be the largest, the "Yellow" (a sort of buff-red) to be the smallest, and the "Redbro" (red type, and the majority of the birds) to fall in the middle.
Up to the 10 weeks, I fed them 33 bags of (50#) feed (3 bags of 28%, then transitioning to the 20%). So,
33 bags x 50 pounds = 1650 pounds feed
1650 pounds feed / 92 birds (might be 94) = 17.9 pounds feed per bird
17.9 pounds feed / 4.6 pounds avg weight = 3.9 pounds feed per pound dressed gain
That's almost a 4:1 feed conversion ratio, which strikes me as high compared to what I expected based on other readings. At roughly 26 cents a pound for my feed, that's $1/pound costs to grow. We are selling ours at market for $3.50 a pound, so it is still profitable but it puts our hourly wage lower than planned for.
My Questions:
I'm curious what others have experienced the FR efficiency to be? As mentioned, their pasture was not lush, but at the same time I did not see them foraging much for what was available. On some of the relatively cooler mornings and evenings they'd scratch around some, but they did a fair about of walk-to-feeder-walk-back-to-shade thing.
They didn't have 24/7 feed as mentioned. Should I further restrict feed and force to to graze more? Or would they just grow less/slower instead? I had visited another farm that raises around 800 FRs a year, who claimed they feed 90lbs of feed for 450 birds a day. I was doing almost half that for 1/4 the birds! FYI, I visited on a fairly cool, overcast day, and his FRs weren't very active either.
I also have a set of Rosambro from MT-DI Hatchery going to, and recording their feed as well. They are super hardy as well, have only lost I think one bird, the day after we received them. I'm going to process some of them at 9 weeks, along with the remaining FRs which will be at 13 weeks (for roasters). Will be interesting to compare.
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