Pasture chickens instead of cows will fertilize steep slopes and forage themselves

One of the most trending topics in the global agro-industrial complex is pasture grazing of agricultural cattle to improve soil fertility. And this is how British poultry farmers approached this issue

Free-range chickens are near-ideal animals for "cultivating" hilly lands, farmers say. Since 2017, the United Kingdom's free-range chicken population has grown by over 14 percent to over 25 million, which can be leveraged for sustainable farming and soil health.

Many British family farmers raise pasture chickens as an alternative source of income.

In many ways, arable production goes hand in hand with free-range chickens, especially now that poultry feed prices are so high.

Tom Lander, a farmer at Lloyds Animal Feeds, says that from an economic point of view, cropland and free range are well matched: “Chickens are a constant source of manure, and there are also periods of the year when farmers are not busy working in the arable land of their business. ".

Another farmer, Charlie Rook, farms in East Yorkshire and has introduced free-range chickens since 2007 and now has about 55,000 birds, up from an initial population of 16,000: “Pasture chickens have been an important step in expanding the business. We used free range as part of our diversification strategy, land prices were very high and in short supply, so additional income from the same plot was a good help. We had a piece of steep pasture with low productivity, which we gave to the chickens, and then planted trees to give the birds a comfortable environment.”

The transition to free poultry farming has helped address volatility in the feed markets: “Obviously feed prices are skyrocketing at the moment, hurting the profitability of egg production, but wheat prices in the arable sector have risen by around £200/tonne so one balances the other in some way. We buy all of our chicken feed and then we sell the wheat and barley separately, it's profitable. We closely monitor the markets, trying to buy our feed as cheaply as possible and sell our grain at a higher price.”

Finally, David Trope and his family also farm and raise free-range chickens near York and currently have three flocks of 23,000 birds each. But in this case, the farmer feeds the chickens with his own grain: “The only feed we have to buy is protein, wheat, barley and oats we produce ourselves on arable land. Yes, it's hard work, and when crops failed, as we saw in 2020, we had to buy some more wheat and barley, but overall we think this is a good way to manage the risks associated with changing markets and maintain some stability. I believe we have cut our usual fertilizer use in half by spreading chicken manure.”