Page 13 - National Poultry Newspaper

‘Toxic’ grain sourced in drought blamed for death of heritage birds on NSW poultry farm
AN inability to source high-quality food during drought is seen as a key reason for the loss of a large number of award- winning heritage birds on a NSW mid-north coast poultry operation.
ers, partly because of lo- gistics, and had ‘shopped around’ due to the in- creased feed costs caused by the dry.
can get their hands on, but it should be backed up by some on-ground trial.”
ously been able to supply,” Mr McMillan said.
Like many primary producers, the drought forced open range farm- ers Hayden and Beth Mc- Millan to reassess their feed requirements on their Burrawong Gaian farm in the Macleay Valley.
“Not having the stock has closedoffsomepartsofthe country that we had previ-
Originally published at abc.net.au
A packaged chicken ready to cook. Photo: Michael Cavanagh
“Of the heritage chick- ens, 1200 did not make it to the processing stage after being given the dif- ferent feed,” Mr McMil- lan said.
“Unfortunately, at the moment, given that de- mand for feed is so high, they do not have that lux- ury,” she said.
“More than 3000 of the 6000 regular meat birds, which would normally be culled at around eight weeks, died.
Ms Balmain said it was worth the $70 to $100 cost to the farmers to test the newly bought feed, if they could.
“The nature of the prob- lem was it stunted the birds.
The McMillans tried a feed range that had been sold to them as ‘fitting the p u r p o s e’.
“It was toxic and held them back.
“I wouldn’t have tried it, in hindsight, knowing there was no other live trial,” Mr McMillan said.
“It affected what we can turn out.”
“Feed companies are en- titled to ‘back themselves in’ and do what they can to make use of grains they
The McMillans had changed their feed suppli-
Photo: Jimmy Care
North West Local Land Services officer Sally Balmain said she would usually recommend farm- ers have the Department of Primary Industries test feed before they bought it, but right now that was a difficult ask.
The birds are sought af- ter by some of Sydney’s better-known eateries, but the calamity has led to some looking elsewhere.
“Many have been pa- tient, but given those plac- es need to be able to put food on the shelves and on the plate, if we haven’t got it they are going to find it elsewhere.”
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