Commercial broiler growers

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
Sorry another question,, what kind of 7 day weights are ppl achieving?
190 grms, 500@14 1050@21
Well the last bay at each end has no pans and the first 30ft of pans are always empty long before the rest. Currently 21 days and on 4 ,,, 2 1/2 hr feeds.
How long is that last Bay? if they are always mt where is the control pan to activate the feeder line?
 

johnspeehs

Member
Location
Co Antrim
Thanks, similar here,,, I can get the performance out of my birds but just not getting the gross margin I would like, need to get the fc down so sticking to the feed program though tempted to increase the feeds ,so far birds still keeping up to the targets.
 

johnspeehs

Member
Location
Co Antrim
190 grms, 500@14 1050@21

How long is that last Bay? if they are always mt where is the control pan to activate the feeder line?

bay is only 10 ft but with the feeder only running 4 times a day the bottom pans always empty first, sensor is in 2nd last pan.. dosent help with 18" fall in the floor, birds tend to move downhill a bit
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
Can you explain Bottom pans? are they the ones at the opposite end to where the feed actually enters the shed?
Have you a "control pan" (with a sensor of some sort) on the end of the line? if you have why dont you just let it take full control by letting it run say 8 times a day ( I presume it has a time clock ) or even just leave it on for all the time. If You do have a control pan on the end and this one is not getting emptied often enough try blanking of the 2 pans before it so more birds are eating from the control Pan.
So How big is the shed? (width/length)
How many sheds? (you could even put your post code in I can look you up on G Earth).
What type of feeder?
Who Recommended the programme? to run like this
How long have you been in the game?
I have quite a fall on my sheds about 16" but that is on a shed that is 260ft long and 80ft wide.
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
To me a feed program is what type of diet is fed to what quantity (or to what age) throughout the birds life I use 5 different diets,
Starter crumb
Starter Pellet,
Grower pellet.
Finisher pellet.
Withdrawal Finisher pellet.
The program you are refering to is a program of time that your FEEDERS are running too. Yes!
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
Some many years ago now probably 25 I was on a Broiler farm around Lincoln learning from a grower that also supplied me with Feed.
At that time he was trying to run his sheds on a dark period at that time of 10hrs straight and would like to do it for longer as the more dark period he gave them the faster they would grow. What stopped him from going for a longer period was purely down to physically getting enough water into the sheds and presented for the birds to fulfill there water requirements.
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
I understand we have till 2022 as we have 1%. I will be very Old then perhaps given up by then or Red T will have passed away!
With the perches why not a couple of hooks with pulleys for each of a 3mtr piece of wood piece of string on to your feeder winch line.
 

chickens and wheat

Member
Mixed Farmer
I worry about winched perches,how do you get the birds to un-perch when winching,
if using the feeder is suspension designed for feede,r feed and birds.

older wooden sheds Im trying 33mm scaffold pole 3m long between two post, on a hinge at one end so they fold vertical up a post
 

Ross308

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
Good evening
My background is, I left college at 17 and starting working on a broiler/dairy farm, then after 10 years working there I decided to put my own unit up on our home farm, currently be growing for myself for 6 years.
Enjoy it some days, others days it drives me insane,
@Chickcatcher, what and how much vit d do you use? I always seem to get a TD problem, I’ve tried d3 plus/extra/active and tried pid vet, the trouble is the vets won’t give me a specific d3 program as they say every bird/flock is different
With regards feed times I’ve tried a few, currently on
30 minute feeds up to day 7, then after that I just leave the feeders on when ever the lights are on, currently doing 6 hours dark with a 4-2 split. Sometimes they do run empty but it’s very rarely, as long as you keep the hoppers really full it works ok, rightly or wrongly, the vet has suggested that Ross get lazy and it’s good to let the pans run down a bit then refill them as they then know that fresh feed is there and it increases bird activity, so I might change back to timed feeds of 30 minutes on time increasing the amount of feeds per day as the birds get older.
 

johnspeehs

Member
Location
Co Antrim
Hi everyone, thanks for your patience, i'l try and explain better. Yes @Chickcatcher feeder times are what I mean. Currently birds are 21 days and get 2 hrs feeder running time, 4 times a day. At 24 days it goes up to 2 1/2 hrs and 3 hrs at 29 days. currently getting 6 hrs dark a 4 and a 2. they say at 29 days to cut them down to 1 hr dark but il not be doing that.
Sheds are 200 x48, 18,000 birds in each with 3 lines of Dutchman feeders. I find the pans in the 3 bays at the far end of the houses are always empty long before the rest of the house and my concern is the birds at that end don't get enough feed, maybe only a notion. The sensor controlling the lines are at the far end of the house. Been in broilers since the late ninties and have got on ok with decent enough results but would like to try and improve them.
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
@johnspeehs Just increase the amount of times they come on to 8 times a day and on for 1.5 hrs at a time so come on every 3 hrs

Ross I have no problems with legs but now changed to Cobb No vits added so far but probably using this batch that place 18th Oct on day 4 and day 11 this will change before that time will be discussing with chick supplier.
 

Ross308

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
@johnspeehs, there is a few ways I would look at this, I run roxell feeders and there are setting on the pan which I can set, which allows the pans to become fuller, the settings are 1-6, I have all the shed on setting 4 and the last 20 feet of pans on setting 6, does the big Dutchman pan have a similar system?
Also are the birds migrating down that end a bit which is increasing the stock density a bit?
Another way could be that you alter your times how you feed them, instead of leaving the lines on for 2 hours then off for a set time, increasing your on time as the birds get older
You could have a set on time of say 15 minutes which allows the pans all to fill up, then turn them off again, then turn them back on again when the end pans get low again, thus if you can alter the settings on your pans should keep them more evenly full,
I hope I’m not teaching you to suck eggs as I appreciate that you have been growing for a lot longer than me
 

Chickcatcher

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
SG9
we have a hopper sensor on pan lines to prevent panlines running empty

I have always considered the sensor to stop the feeders from OVER filling.
During one christmas period Electrics to feeder line and there control became so out of control the only way I had any control was be figuring out what the feed time neded to fill the pans and run it for that set period.
The problem had been a negative wire being swapped from a fan to a feeder after some major refabrication of a side wall. (heat exchanger install) the negative wire had been linked into the starter switch somehow
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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