POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 93, 12 January 1918, Page 13

POULTRY NOTES

(By Chanticleer.)

'I'll I? following instructive advic« i? a.p-1 proytriate. for local oonditioue, and is writlen hy A. A. Dunnicliffe, of the "Sydney Daily Telegraph":— Tablto Poultry. A :roost instructivo and much-needed les;taiglit be learnt by poultry-keepers at, the present timo by a. visit of inspection and inquiry to the, municipal aud other city salerooms where table poultry is offered for sale. It would be seen that while the market is fairly congested with infcri'or, hall'-growii, and baxily-reareit cockerels, and particularly White Leghorns,: which aro being sold at rates that mean loss to the producer, there is but. a very small percentage of even moderately good table poultry offering; and that wtell-grown birds, ranging from 44 to 6 months old, aro realising priccs that, notwithstanding tho high price of food, should return good profits to tho poultryfarmer. It is'quite a common thing to see White leghorn cockerels of five to six months old mtfkinsr 6s. 6d.'to 7s. per pair, while hfeavy breeds off similar age make Bb. 6d. to 10s. 6d. per pair. 1 It is difficult to get many poultry-keep-erß to realise the truth of this. 'Ilio writer has this week had brought under his notice some returns received by the Hawkesbnry Agricultural College for cull cockerels sent to market in the usual way to a city Belling firm, which show that Whit© Leghorn cockerels made 6s. lid. per pair, while Rhode Island Red cockerels made 95..2 d., per pair.. These, it may be stated, were some cull birds, none of which were hatched before the middlo of June, and most ol' '.hem a month later; neither had they • received any prepara-. tion. or fattening for market, but. had. been taken direct, from the runs upon which they had been grown. Thay had been-fed simply on mass for momifiK and midday feeds, and-wheat and cracked maize for eveninc ileod. Yet under this 6imple treatment prices such as stated were made for the whole consignment of young cockerels, consisting of- 29 pairs sent' to market in commissioners' -crates, If this was the only instance, .perhaps, some donbt might arise ae to whether it .was exceptional; but it is well known that, private poultry-farmers who grow good birds aro securing similar prices. It will be within the knowlodge of many poultry-keepers that Mr. KaaUngton lias repeatedly drawn attention to the practice '.of poultry-keepers • marketing their cockerels at too early an age and. too small in Bizo. being under tjie impression that tho birds will not j>av to feed, and thus- losing money on tho cookerel portion of their hatohing6 oxcept for a few sold very early in tho spring as broilers. | In a paper read before the 191.J conference at the Hawkesbury Agricultural Oollege,- the expert, set out the cost of. feeding cockerels in such a ■ way as to leave I no room for doubt that it paid better, to rear them to an ago and weight that | would make them good'table poultry tlhan to sacrifice-them at so early an. age. In othor words, - tho advice was to treat cockerels. as an asset rather than a byproduct to be got out of the way. Taking the figures then stated, and aiding the difference in cost of feed, it will still cost less than 4b, to feed a paiV of cockerels to 5} months old. Othei charges against) rearing would be tically the same it Sold at three monthsl old.

Tho '.point,- however, -toon which thero appears to bo a misunderstanding is in roßpect to cost of feeding chickens to marketable ago as advooated. Many poultrykeepers base their calculations on this matter upon adult feeding cost for the whole period. This is an error;.somewhere about half-adult cost of feeding is' about correct. .