Meat breeds

[reeeen4]

Well I recently moved onto my family farm and have 270 acres to grow chickens on. So it's sort of something I "hope" will come a large part of the farm. Where I can grow a meat chicken breed similar to what we get in the shops but more ethical. Sadly here in Australia we don't have Freedom Rangers or Red Rangers to the best of my knowledge so going to have to make something myself. But I'm liking the sound of a Cornish X Australorp though.

 

[Molpet]

https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

 

[reeeen4]

Could you selectively breed larger birds from heritage breeds? how long would this take?

 

[reeeen4]

Generations. Breed a lot & cull heavily. How many breeding pens would you operate?

what is your timeline? Quicker to source birds closer to your desired type.

I'm just starting out so am researching into meat breeds. I would make as many pens as needed to get what I'm after.

Not sure about timeline I just started so not sure how long this sort of things takes. I'm young and fairly new to poultry and farming.

 

[reeeen4]

I see a decision in your future. To over simplify, spend a lot of money for quality stock to save time or spend a lot of time to develop quality stock. Sometimes the journey makes you appreciate the destination more.

How much time would this take? Good question. A lot of times the goals change as your knowledge increases. Simple answer is as much time you think it needs.

Since you are new and this is my opinion only, set a dollar amount to spend/invest. Is this a hobby? How well do you know chickens? Get some cheap chickens and see if you enjoy it. Too many times people discover they don't like something after spending a lot of time and money. So invest the time using your budget. Spend more on the infrastructure than the livestock at first.

I knew nothing about chickens. Did some research and wanted to try it. I'm enjoying in way more than I thought I would. Start small and go from there. Ask around for a mentor. Internet is neat, but touching something is better.

Not trying to evade your questions, but only you know your answer.

Best wishes!

I guess it would also depend on if there is quality stock near me, I'm from Australia and I can buy what they call "Ross" or "Cobb" chickens here but they are the industrial meat chickens.

I have found some people who have pure breed Cornish (indian game birds) I was thinking of getting some and breeding them with some other large heritage breeds that have good table value like Sussex, Australorp and Dorkings (although I have heard that dorkings are not that large in Australia).

I have had egg chickens for years and I love raising chickens so it is a hobby I guess but I'd also seriously like to develop a chicken that is great at foraging and fast growing but in a healthy way not like the industrial chickens. Something more suited to the Australian climate too.

I guess I will just have to take it as it comes and hope it doesn't take me 40 years hahaha

 

[Klutch]

I like chicken meat that has some flavor to, here in the states were so used to eating chicken like foster, zacky and tyson farms. Go with your DP Australorps and if thats not giving you enough meat throw some indian games into them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If eggs arn't a priority but a sustainable table bird is then Cornish (Indian Game) all by themselves stack up well. Check out "sustainable cornish flock" thread in this meat forum.

I've said before if a person just wanted to breed quickly for a good sustainable dual purpose flock they should try Dixie Rainbow. It's a hybrid that quickly matures and has high egg output. If a person line bred them it would take a few years but could manage a decent repeatable dual purpose bird. Would take culling and only keeping far less than 10% of the F1's to make headway. More like 4%- if you hatched a 100 keep a quad.

 

[Birdinhand]

I've eaten a few of my heritage breed cast offs and mostly had a miserable experience. I now grow egg layers for eggs and CX for meat and I just don't find it's worth eating the non CX birds. I keep thinking I should grind up the layers for dog food but truth is, it's rare that I end up with a layer dying or needing to be put down. they produce eggs for a long time and become more like pets. mostly they get buried.

there are folks who prefer the taste of non-meet birds enough to make it worth the trouble, expense and low yield, so if that's you, then have at it.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

What do you want from your meat birds? Cornish cross give you that "white" meat. Heritage, non corn feed, get a rich darker meat and flavor. My neighbor told me I didn't bleed the bird I gave them enough. She used to raise her own birds as a kid and they corned them heavily as bird feed wasn't really a thing.

This was a Rhode Island Rooster, that had to go.
View attachment 2004455

And the thighs
View attachment 2004456

Looks great!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Well I recently moved onto my family farm and have 270 acres to grow chickens on. So it's sort of something I "hope" will come a large part of the farm. Where I can grow a meat chicken breed similar to what we get in the shops but more ethical. Sadly here in Australia we don't have Freedom Rangers or Red Rangers to the best of my knowledge so going to have to make something myself. But I'm liking the sound of a Cornish X Australorp though.

Can you get Bresse there? It's a very meaty, relatively fast-growing breed...and the flavor is amazing. Bresse crosses well with other large fowl, too. They're also very good layers.