Ky, hillbilly teaches sound poultry lesson
By JOANNE SPAHR
LANCASTER - Rufus
could teach a poultryman a
thing or two.
“He was an ingenious
Kentucky mountaineer he
had no education, but he was
brilliant,” claimed Dr.
Ronnie Graves, Extension
poultry specialist from the
University of Kentucky who
chronicled the history of his
back hills friend Rufus at a
recent educational seminar
sponsored by the Lancaster
County Poultry Association
and Penn State University. ~
“He only had' a second
grade education,” the man
with the delightful southern
drawl continued, “But, I
consider him to be the best
poultryman I ever met. ”
In 1957 Rufus had 5000
layers and got 245 eggs per
hen housed in 12 months.
“And, how’d he get that?”
questioned Graves. “He got
that by spending time with
the chickens why he has
each and every one per
sonally named! ” proclaimed
the southern Extension
specialist with - an
evangelistic ring to his
voice.
Graves continued with his
narrative by explaining one
of his first encounters with
Rufus.
“As a green poultry
specialist, I went over to
Rufus’ and saw he has those
round hanging feeders. And,
I said,' ‘Rufus, you need
more feeders. Then your egg
production will go up.’ ”
To this, Rufus replied,
“Why, son, I already get 245
eggs per hen housed.”
Undaunted, the green
poultry specialist continued
looking for errors in Rufus’s
set-up.
“We came to a 1500 laying
house up in the holler,”
Graves twanged. “And, it
had one Swiss waterer in the
center of it, and I said,
‘Rufus, I’ll tell ya what cha
gotta doo. If ya put more
waterers in this house, you’ll
get bigger eggs’.
To this, the wise
poultryman replied, “Son,
they’re already so big
they’re tearin’ the hens to
pieces!”
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Realizing his ignorance,
the green poultry specialist
eventually gave up trying to
hand out sage advice.
“Rufus taught me a lot,”
concluded Graves. “He
taught me that there’s no
substitute for good
management. You can buy
the finest equipment and the
best feed and the best
chickens, but you’ve got to
get your feet wet, fellas! ”
Putting the moral of his
story into concrete fact,
Graves pointed cut that a
one per cent increase in
production for 20,000 laying
hens is equal to $2400 to the
poultryman. And, a one per
cent reduction in un
dergrades also comes to
$2400.
And, on feed efficiency, if
the poultryman is able to
feed his chickens 1/10 of a
pound less feed per dozen
eggs, the result is $2BOO
saved. Taking that example
a little further. Graves
computed that if feed con
version were high enough for
a poultryman to feed % a
pound less feed, the total
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Moving onto a new
thought, Graves proclaimed,
“Marketing eggs is the name
of the game. It doesn’t
matter how many eggs you
get if you can’t get them to
market!”
Molting was also a topic of
Graves’ attention.
“There are two types of
molting,” the poultry
(specialist twanged,
“Desperation molting and
planned molting.”
“Desperation molting
comes up in the case where
the poultryman winds up 12
to 14 months away, and the
credit man says you don’t
have any credit to buy
chickens this year,” Graves
pointed out to the ac
companiment of chuckles
from the audience.
“At this point, the
poultryman says ‘What am I
going to do? I’m going to
molt my chickens’,” says
Graves.
Chronicling how a grower
can wind up in this
predicament, the Kentucky
7823
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 8,1978
poultry specialist noted that
this can happen through bad
management, poor
production, low egg prices,
high mortality, and factors
which can’t be controlled
such as the prices of grain
and feed.
“What you wind up with is
no profits,” Graves said
flatly.
Planned molting, on the
other hand, is one which the
producer has planned from
the time the birds are in
production six or seven
months. In planned molting,
the poultryman also decides
where to buy his pullets no
less than five or six months
in advance.
“Otherwise, you get
stressed pullets,” Graves
points out.
For a planned molt,
Graves says that the
producer needs to consider
the external factors, or those
things over which he has no
control, such as egg prices
both present and future and
similarly, feed prices.
He °lso has to consider his
mark ..
“Once you molt that flock
of chickens, you’re not going
to get the same type of
eggs,” Graves stated.
“You’ve got to be sure that
the market will take a higher
percentage of extra large
and jumbo eggs. And, you’d
better be paid a premium
price,” he pointed out.
Graves also told the in
dustrymen to consider the
internal factors those
which they do have control
over.
Each poultryman should
look at the rate of lay of his
flock. Once molted, the rate
of lay will be less than when
the flock was at the pullet
stage, but higher than when
they went out of production.
“If they don’t have a good
rate of lay before, it’s not a
particularly good idea to
molt them,” Graves stated.
Each chicken farmer
should also consider the
percentage of uridergrades,
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Dr. Ronnie Graves
particularly due to shell
problems, and know where
the problems come from.
Once the birds are molted,
shell quality temporarily
improves, but it doesn’t last
through the laying period.
Another factor which
should be considered is
mortality.
“Mortality is going to be
somewhat higher later,”
Graves states.
He also warned the
growers present to check
feed efficiency, or feed per
dozen eggs, stating that the
conversion is going to take
higher feed the second time
around.
Also the producer needs to
check with his breeder to
fmd out whether his par
ticular chicken lends itself to
molting.
In conclusion, Graves
reviewed the facts. Molting
increases egg size, mortality
and feed per dozen eggs. The
birds give less production
than when pullets, but more
than before they molted.
“If you have poor quality
eggs before you molt, you’re
only delaying the problem,”
Graves continued.
“So, look at all the facts
before you molt,” the
Kentucky poultry specialist
said. “And, make your
decision in advance.”
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