Page 6 - National Poultry Newspaper

Warm welcome to feathered friends
ACCORDING to Uni- versity College London geneticist Mark Thomas, about 1000 years ago there was massive evo- lutionary pressure for domestic chickens to lay eggs all year round and be less aggressive, there- by allowing many indi- viduals to be confined in a small space.
At the same time, chicken bones became much more common in the archaeological record, showing that people were eating more of them.
Remarkably, also ac- cording to Thomas, this coincided with a decree from Benedictine monks to avoid eating four-leg- ged animals on fast days.
Birds and eggs were, of course, exempt.
Though chickens were first domesticated about 6000 years ago, the fea- tures that essentially led to the chickens we know
Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
today were arguably brought about by a reli- gious decree.
An interesting aside: in 1994 Thomas was one of the first people to read
the DNA sequence of the extinct woolly mammoth. Quite a ‘tusk’ (sorry!).
So, having now revealed something of the origins of today’s laying hens, it’s time to reveal some his- tory on myself, by way of introduction to my inaugural monthly NPN column.
For those familiar with Collins Media’s other animal industry tabloid, Australian Pork Newspa- per, you may already have read my monthly Cant Comment column there, which I’ve been writing for 21 years.
While that version cov- ers pork/pigs and this will cover chicken meat/eggs, there is a definite crosso- ver between the lives of our feathered friends and those of our precious pigs.
With intensive animal production increasingly under the spotlight and animal welfare front and
centre in that debate, poultry and pigs share some common ground or, as some would put it, dan- gerous territory.
Likewise, with grain a key component in the formulated diets of both, escalating grain prices are another common and topi- cal focus.
Then, on the meat front, both of course compete as preferred protein choices for shop shelf and plate space.
With a mountain of pork now available in Austral- ia, due to a 12-month-long blowout in pig numbers, pork consumers are in heaven and producers in hell.
I bought, for example, delectable, tender, juicy pork fillet steaks at one of the big two supermarkets the other day for $15/kg, while battling pork pro- ducers are trying to tough it out (or get out in some
cases) with grain prices approaching $400/tonne and many being paid less than the cost of produc- tion for their pigs, whether sold direct or at auction or privately.
Chicken, consistently well priced, also regularly finds its place on my pro- tein plate.
Likewise eggs, with my usual source the Wilson family’s 14,000 Hyline hen egg farm only a few kilometres down the track from my South Fremantle home.
Their Fremantle Egg Company-branded jumbo free range eggs, bought direct from their recently built on-farm shop, are well priced and simply fantastic.
Some of you will no doubt know the proprietor Ian Wilson, who is also president of the Commer- cial Egg Producers As- sociation of WA and a
director of Egg Farmers of Australia.
Daughter Rachel is play- ing an increasingly sig- nificant role at the farm.
She too takes her indus- try seriously.
She is executive officer of CEPA WA.
Anyway, as for my promised history, perhaps the contributor profile be- low from Australian Pork Newspaper’s website will suffice, albeit my journal- istic and PR career for the past 40 years has covered pretty much all farming facets and agribusiness business.
Feel free to call me on 0417 930536 or email me at brendon@iinet.net. au if there’s any poultry matters you want dis-
cussed or covered.
Contributor profile
Since 1984, Brendon Cant has provided public relations and media ser- vices to Australia’s pork industry, including the fresh pork, smallgoods, R&D and producer sec- tors.
From 1977 to 1984 he was an agricultural jour- nalist with Elders Weekly, Farmers Weekly, West- ern Farmer & Grazier, Countryman, Merredin Advertiser and Esperance Express.
During this period, in 1980, he moved to Can- berra to start and manage an agricultural news bu- reau, servicing the Stock Journal and the Farmers Weekly.
New wastewater
pumps from
Gorman-Rupp
GORMAN-Rupp, the world leader in solids-handling, self- priming centrifugal pumps, has released the most advanced pump for handling solids-laden liquids according to Austral- ian distributor Hydro Innovations.
Called the Eradica- tor Solids Management System, the technology is ideal for the challeng- es facing wastewater pumps, including the handling of stringy sol- ids such as rags, feathers and twine, which find their way into meat pro- cessing plant wastewa- ter systems.
The new system comes as an option on the Gor- man-Rupp range of Su- per T series pumps, and is also available as an upgrade kit on existing Super T pumps already in the field.
The Eradicator sys- tem features an aggres- sive self-cleaning wear plate incorporating a number of notches and grooves, as well as a patent pending lacer- ating tooth that helps break up stringy ma- terials, scrape them off the impeller vanes and pass them through the pump – all without im- pacting performance or interrupting service.
A special cover plate with the system in- cludes a smaller, pat- ented lightweight in-
spection cover that can easily be removed if necessary to inspect pump internals.
System benefits in- clude improved op- erational efficiency, increased uptime, re- duced maintenance costs, lower lifecycle costs and easier access to the impeller.
Operators will also find the lighter cover plate is easier and safer to work with.
Eradicator-equipped pumps do not require expensive chopper blades that need peri- odic replacement, but rely on passing large solids and stringy ma- terials straight through the pump.
The system is avail- able with carbon steel or hardened alloy steel wear plates.
Pumps can han- dle flows from 5l/s through to 200l/s and heads to 45m, and Gorman-Rupp Super T pumps are able to be mounted high and dry above the wastewater (up to 7.6m), so opera- tors gain easy access without the need for cranes or other lifting devices.
More information on these pumps and the Eradicator system can be obtained from Hy- dro Innovations at in fo@hydroinnovations. com.au or by calling 02 9898 1800.
Happy hens, or Bali bantams, in Ubud, Bali, a couple of weeks ago. A strange, but obviously workable mixture of free range and caged, it seems. While certain they’d have tasted just right to the local villagers, the author didn’t get to sample them.
Page 6 – National Poultry Newspaper, June 2018
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