A3B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 23, 2002
Gochenaurs Work Together
(Continued from Page A 23)
farm, they arrive in a big way
approximately 18,000 poults
come at once. The poults come
from Virginia, Ohio, the Caroli
nas, or even Canada or Califor
nia, on occasion.
After they arrive at the farm,
the day-old birds are loaded on a
flatbed pickup and driven down
to the barn, where they are un
loaded. They snuggle in groups of
225 they are unloaded into card
board rings under the pancake
brooder stoves which keep the
temperature at a balmy 100 de
grees.
A nipple line close by, with
The poults snuggle in groups of 225 they are unload
ed into cardboard rings under the pancake brooder
stoves which keep the temperature at a balmy 100 de
grees.
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shiny water droplets to catch
their eyes, and small mini cups
offer water to the young birds.
Besides helping to feed calves
(Karen raises 125 calves a year
for a nearby dairy farm), the chil
dren help out, “especially in the
first week. It’s like a marathon
around here then,” said Bob.
Young poults “have a tenden
cy to flip over on their backs and
can’t get back up by themselves,”
said Bob. “They get dehydrated if
they are there too long.”
Consequently the children
travel through the brooder house
with buckets, gathering chicks
that have flipped, and taking
them to a recovery pen that is
from our
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equipped with a special mat of
fering better footing.
Nurturing the young flock also
entails checking the poults every
two hours for the first couple
days. Even when the birds are
older, Bob checks all three bams
several times a day and again at
the end of each day.
Also during the first week the
Gochenaurs scoop the poults’
feed into a wheelbarrow to put in
the small feeders, which equates
to hand-hauling four tons of feed.
Finishing
When the poults are approxi
mately six weeks old, they are
split into two groups and moved
to the finishing bams.
This also is a family endeavor,
as the children can help push the
young turkeys through the corri
dors that lead to the other bams.
“In an hour we can move a bam
ful,” said Bob.
In the finisher bams the tur
keys now drink from bell-shaped
“plassons” which give them ac
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cess to more water, “especially
during a hot dry summer,” said
Karen. All three bams of turkeys
may drink more than 6,000 gal
lons of water a day.
Feeding thousands of turkeys
also requires a substantial
amount of feed, since all of the
birds eat fifteen tons of pellets a
day.
“Typically, at their peak, when
the birds are older, we can go
through three tractor trailer loads
a week,” said Bob.
The toms are “pushing close to
40 pounds” when they leave at 20
weeks of age.
When the birds leave a crew of
8-10 people come to the farm to
push the birds onto a loader, a
four-foot-wide conveyor belt that
takes the birds outside of the
bam, where they are loaded into
pens.
Health, Safety
Since keeping the young poults
in top health is important. Bob
hand-forks the shavings in the
brooder house each day in the
water and feeding areas.
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This keeps the litter dry and
prevents the poults from develop
ing foot and health problems.
Bob also regularly rototills the
sawdust in the finisher bams for
the same reason.
Since the poults need to be
kept warm, and the larger birds
should stay in temperatures in
the 60-degree range, alarms go
off to sound the alert if the cli
mate changes too drastically.
“It’s harder to regulate in the
spring and fall, since the temper
atures are so variable,” said
Karen.
In addition to temperatures,
biosecurity measures are also a
concern for the Gochenaurs.
“Anyone entering the farm has
to sign in,” said Bob. Also, the
end doors are kept locked. Dip
pans are inside each door, and
the disinfectant is changed daily.
Bob also changes into separate
boots for the different bams. The
bams are also screened to keep
the wild birds out.
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