News

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.

What are pin feathers?

When new feathers first come through the skin after a moult they are sharp and bristly and difficult to grasp. These are called pin feathers. Plucking machines cannot remove them. As they grow longer they open out at the tip and look like small paintbrushes. Eventually the feathers lengthen and fluff out and look normal.

Loss of feathers (moulting) and replacement with new ones occurs at regular intervals. Textbooks will tell you when this is expected to occur, so that you can plan slaughter when there are no pin feathers present. However this is not an exact science.

Moulting is somewhat unpredictable, being influenced by breed, age, temperature, light levels and feed. Therefore you need to be able to recognize when your birds SHOULD NOT be sent for slaughter because it is impossible to do a good job of plucking.

Before loading birds for transport run your hand up the breast and if it feels bristly that bird should stay home. If the breast is smooth we can produce a clean carcass.

How to cook a rooster

The abattoir has now processed many small groups of roosters. All were intended for
food, but depending on their age they may need to be cooked in different ways.

Most of these birds are of mixed breed, so were not grown specifically to become meat.
Some may have been the roosters from laying breeds, so they are long and lean with very
little breast meat, but muscular thighs. The texture of the meat from these relatively slow
growing birds will be finer grained and firmer than the very young meat chickens, but if
appropriately cooked will not be tough.

Chickens up to the age of a year do not need special treatment, but should be kept moist
during cooking as the meat layer is thin and there is very little body fat. Older birds
benefit from longer slower cooking. Stewing in the oven, or cooking in a crockpot whole
or cut up, will make the most of this kind of meat, regardless of age.

The old Scottish favourite, Cock-a-leekie, is a sure way to produce a tasty meal from
your surplus mature roosters. Be sure to choose a recipe that simmers the meat and bones
for several hours.

What is pastured chicken?

Pastured chicken is raised out of doors on grass, in contrast to most commercial chicken which is raised indoors in large barns.

“Chicken tractors” are mobile pens that can be pulled onto fresh grass every day or two. They were invented to provide a clean safe environment for the young chickens, where they could live from about 4 weeks old, when they no longer need lights, until ready for harvesting. This gives them access to clean grass and weeds, while provided with feed, water, shade and predator protection.

Pen designs vary tremendously. Most will hold 50 to 70 chickens, and are moved either with a tractor or for the lighter ones by human effort only. Many designs are available on
the internet and many have been built here. Wood is most popular material, but plastic pipe, tarps, and plastic or wire netting have been used. Some have automatic watering systems.

This system provides a safe controlled environment and easy observation of the flock for the owner. It also fertilizes the ground they occupy, leaving a bright green trail where the pens used to be. This management system was made famous by Joel Salatin, who has written books about it and inspired local farmers on his recent visits to BC.

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