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Harvesting
At the processing plant, birds are humanely slaughtered as
quickly as possible. After slaughter, the feathers, offal, head,
legs, and other items are removed so that they have a whole
dressed carcass ready for sale or to send onto further
processing. The cost of processing a broiler is about $.18 per
pound. The wholesale price for a whole broiler is about $.53
per pound.
Incubation
Most Integrated companies own their own hatchery to produce
the chicks. Incubators will hold thousands of eggs in a very
controlled environment. They are then transferred into
hatching baskets. On the 21st day the chicks hatch.
Hatching
After the chicks hatch, they are removed from the hatchers and
processed before being taken to the grow-out farm. Processing
of broiler chickens include sexing (separating the males and
females if the company raised the two sexes separately) and
vaccination. They are then counted and placed in baskets for
delivery to the farm within 12 hours of hatch. A broiler chick
is worth about $.36 and weights around 44g.
Further Processed Products
This is where we make the product more convenient as well as
add value to the product. In the meat industry, further
processing means something is done to the whole carcass such
as cut-up, deboning, and fabricating poultry meat into
value-added products. The cut-up operation is often done at
the processing plant. However, some companies ship the
whole carcasses to the further processing plant for specialized
cut-up. Cut-up is where machines cut the whole carcass into
individual parts. Deboning is where the bones are removed
from specific parts to produce items like breast filets or other
boneless products.
Contact Information
Phillip Clauer
Senior Instructor
pclauer@psu.edu
814-863-8960