Production Cornish Rocks

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

I am a livestock nutritionist by training and profession and have worked a very little in the commercial poultry industry as a supplier. The various threads asking about making your own "cornish rocks" have shown the lack of knowledge of the highly competitive and technical breeding of production broilers. As some have said the term "cornish rock" is generic and noe longer relates to a simple F1 cross of a Cornish male and a White Rock female.

The following links will lead you to the major broiler breeders in the USA. These companies hatch MILLIONS of birds each year and have bred the different lines to meet specific needs of the industry and broiler producers. The margins in the broiler industry are very tight and an seemingly insignificant change in feed converion of one "point" or 0.01 can impact income by millions of dollars.

I hope the links help you understand what broiler breeders are providing to the commercial broiler industry.

Jim


http://www.cobb-vantress.com/Products/Default.aspx

http://www.hubbardbreeders.com/

http://www.aviagen.com/output.aspx?sec=2102&con=410&siteId=2&region=Na

http://www.hybro.com/template.php?sectionId=3

 

[greyfields]

And this is the ATTRA publication explaining it a bit better as an overview:

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF...500&rdepth=0&sufs=0&order=r&cq=&id=48032b6961

Yes you can make your own Cornish Crosses and yes you can eat them. They are nowhere near as (over)selected as commercial broilers, so they have some advantages. They just won't pencil out as efficient as custom raised broilers of course.

 

[digitS']

I appreciate this insight on the industry.

Thanks

!

Steve