Author: delsey

Duck news

The June 14th experiments with 29 young Pekin ducks revealed that they take at least 3 times as long as chickens to process, and are a lot more difficult to pluck cleanly. Some of them had to be partly or completely skinned. The price therefore needs to be triple the price listed for chickens.

However the time factor is a bigger problem at this time of year than the extra work and skill involved. For every 20 ducks booked we would have to turn away 60 chickens. From June to August this year we are fully booked and adding extra days for chickens, so taking ducks as well would reduce local meat production, and force chicken customers to go off island.

If there is enough interest in duck and goose processing we can assign specific days for it from September onwards, and book more staff on those days. If this might be of interest to you please “Contact us” with your tentative schedule.

Surcharge for extra large chickens

As of August 8th, when the chicks arriving now reach slaughter weight, there will be a surcharge of $2 if they weigh over 3 kg processed.

Salt Spring chickens sometimes grow as large as 4kg, or occasionally even more. This is causing a number of problems during processing because the equipment is not designed to handle such large birds.

The very large birds are usually older, so they are harder to kill and take longer to scald. Fewer can be scalded at one time because only 2 or 3 instead of 4 or 5 fit on the dunker. The plucker likewise cannot hold 5 large birds, and having fewer moving objects in it affects its efficiency, because plucking works better when the birds are tossed around and bump against the rubber fingers and each other. With only 2 birds they don’t make good all round contact with the plucking surfaces.

Big chubby birds also take up more rack space, further limiting what we can do in a day. With 5 or 6 pound birds (very roughly 2.5-3 kg) we can process 150 in a day. With giants it would be 100 or less, and would take double the time.

Duck Processing – Update

We did some experiments with waterfowl last November with rather mixed results. The ducks were of unknown age and some were very difficult to pluck, so we were not happy with the results. We are trying again this coming week with Pekin ducks, bred primarily for meat, and they will be at the ideal processing age. If this goes well and we are happy with the quality we will announce that on the website and will start processing young meat ducks. The price will be based on how long it takes to process them, and is likely to be more than for chickens.

Abattoir Open House

On April 16th the Lieutenant Governor, her Honour, the Honorable Judith Guichon, began her tour of Salt Spring with a visit to the abattoir. Her three guides, Jean Brouard, Anne Macey and Margaret Thomson have been deeply involved in the planning of the facility, and lately also in its operation. The Lieutenant Governor is very familiar with BC’s meat industry, through her involvement in cattle ranching in the Interior, and understands the need for concerted community effort to address the difficulties caused by the changes in the meat regulations.

Many people have now visited the abattoir, with the largest numbers on April 12th for the Open House. The grounds were decorated, courtesy of Foxglove Farm and Garden, and coffee and cookies were served. All the Abattoir Society directors and the chair of the Agricultural Alliance were there to explain how the equipment is used and why it had to be built the way it is. The high cost of construction is easier to understand if you see all the “extras” that were required, and the amount of labour that was involved in meeting all the sometimes conflicting requirements of all the agencies involved.

Your donations are still needed. Click HERE for details.

Why do sheep need ID tags?

On your own farm tags may be irrelevant. You know your sheep by their faces, voices, wool colour, behaviour or possibly by the shape of their horns. After slaughter all these outward signs and behavioural clues are absent.

Abattoirs identify carcasses, and at a later stage packages of meat, by owner name and sheep tag number. This makes it possible for all meat to be traced back to the farm of origin and to a specific animal. This is what traceability means.

This only works if all sheep arrive at the abattoir with tags IN THEIR EARS, not in their owner’s hand or pocket. Identification of all animals that leave their birth farm for any reason has been required for a number of years. Tags can be ordered from Canadian Co-op Wool Growers in Lethbridge by phoning 1 800-567-3693. Your name and the tag numbers issued to you are kept on record. The tags are intended for use on your farm only. If you “borrow” tags from another farm this means that in the case of a suspected meat quality problem your sheep will be identified as coming from somebody else’s farm. This is a sure way to lose friends.

Sheep arriving at the abattoir untagged will not be unloaded because they cannot be processed without individual identification. If you have bought tags and would like help putting them in please write a message to the abattoir by clicking Contact and we will find someone to help you learn how to do it.

Now open for lambs

The abattoir now has its licence for red meat slaughter, and expects that within days it will receive approval for cutting and wrapping. We will then be able to accept bookings for lambs as well as poultry. The first 6 local lambs were processed on January 31st.

Members of the Abattoir Society will have priority when booking. To join please click here.

To make a booking request please click here. Booking dates will be posted on the calendar in April for the rest of the year.

What is a Salt Spring chicken?

Several kinds of meat chicken are regularly grown on Salt Spring. Until three years ago almost all were the white Cornish crosses. These are usually grown for 8 or 9 weeks, and have a large amount of breast meat and short legs.

Then two new kinds were brought in as chicks by air from Pennsylvania, the Redbro and the Mistral Gris. Both are bred from four different grandparent stocks (this means that they are a 4 way cross, not a breed) and both are now available in western Canada.

This means that it is far easier and possibly a little cheaper to obtain the chicks, and there will be much more flexibility in the hatching season, meaning that chicken will be available for purchase throughout the growing season instead of coming all at once in July and October.

The Redbro and Mistral Gris are both called “rustic broilers” and are ready at about 11 weeks. They are of different ancestry than the Cornish cross and also live several weeks longer, so can be expected to taste a little different. Flavour increases with the age of the bird.

The Redbro has mostly red feathers and is a taller bird with longer legs than the Cornish cross. This means that it has more dark meat. Males and females are not much different in size at 11 weeks.

The Mistral Gris is black and white and resembles a Barred Rock chicken in build and colour. There is more size difference between the genders than with the Redbro. They also are ready at 11 weeks.