FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
Pheasant hunting boosts bird demand across North America
Hunting pheasants is big business across the United States and Canada pushing demand for the game birds sky high. Poultry World visits a pheasant farm to learn more.
BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH O
The nets keep the pheasants in the pen and pre- vent predator attacks.
n top of the huge demand for hunting, pheasant meat is also very popular with North American consumers which is good news for those who farm the birds. Pheasants are not indigenous to
the United States with the first pheasants imported from Great Britain as long ago as the late 1800s. Shipments of eggs continued to be imported into the US right into the early 1900s as it was soon discovered that pheasants thrived well there. By the 1920s pheasant populations were sufficient to be able to sustain hunting and thus a lucrative pheasant hunting sport began which has become very popular.
Largest farm Based in southern Wisconsin, USA, MacFarlane Pheasants Inc has been producing birds since 1929 when the company was
founded by Kenneth MacFarlane and later taken over by his brother Donald following an untimely accident that claimed Kenneth’s life. Itis the largest pheasant farm in North America and will hatch almost two million pheasants this year along with 250,000 partridges. However, maintaining a business of this scale does not come without its fair share of challenges. Donald’s son, William MacFarlane – or Bill, for short – re- turned home right after graduating from college in 1979 to run the farm and is now CEO of the company. “Our farm extends to 250 hectares overall,” Bill said. “Around 100 of those hectares are laid out in pens covered with net- ting. We have over 80 full-time employees working for us on the farm and in the processing unit. “In 2019 we will hatch 1.8 million pheasants and 250,000 par- tridges. The pheasants produced are primarily ringneck, but about 250,000 are white pheasants raised for meat. Ringneck pheasants are sold live for hunting at 22 weeks old and above. The white pheasants are processed at a target weight of 1.8kgs at 12 weeks old,” he continued.
Variety of birds The farm raises a variety of birds including Chinese Ringneck Pheasants, Manchurian Ringneck Cross Pheasants, Kansas Pheasants, and Chukar Redleg Partridges. Over the years pheasants have also been imported from the wild in China and the farm has retained this wild stock bloodline in some of its birds today. Feeding all these birds comes at a cost but one that is manageable for the team at MacFarlane Pheasants. Bill explained there are bigger concerns on the farm than rising feed costs. “We feed all the birds a diet consisting of corn, soy and wheat. A 20 percent protein-fortified grower diet would cost about US$ 0.26/kg. However one of the financial costs of more con- cern on the farm right now is the rising cost of employment.
16 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2020
PHOTOS: PICASA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
