Bassler, Arnd
(2005).
Organic broilers in floorless pens on pasture.
Diss. (sammanfattning/summary)
Uppsala :
Sveriges lantbruksuniv.,
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae, 1652-6880
; 2005:67
ISBN 91-576-6966-X
[Doctoral thesis]
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Abstract
This thesis investigates different aspects of rearing broilers organically in floorless pens on pasture. The birds and pens were moved daily to fresh pasture. The interdisciplinary studies comprise the birds' growth performance and carcass quality, health, behaviour, leg condition and the birds’ effect on pasture. In the final study, on-farm diets were tested in a feeding experiment indoors. The data are based on four experiments carried out during 2000 to 2003. In 2000 and 2002, restricted-fed conventional broilers (ROSS 208) were reared in floorless pens on pasture and in control groups outdoors on straw. In 2001, two genotypes, ROSS 208 and the slow-growing ISA 657 were reared on three ground types, pasture, outdoors on straw and indoors on wood shavings with either an ad libitum or restricted feeding level. In 2003, a feeding experiment with slow-growing broilers fed on-farm diets in a choice feeding system was conducted indoors. Most birds were reared to 12 weeks of age, but ad libitum-fed ROSS birds were reared to 6 weeks. The experimental phase was from ca. 3 weeks to slaughter. The experiments indicate that under the given conditions - access to pasture does not offer sufficient protein and metabolizable energy to allow considerable feed savings in the farm enterprise (Paper I) - moving the floorless pens daily provides favourable conditions to prevent infections with Campylobacter and Eimeria in outdoor broilers (Paper II) - access to pasture as such appears to play no major role for the broilers' physical activity (Paper III) or leg condition (Paper IV) - broiler chickens on pasture can sustain white clover in a mixed grass/white clover pasture (Paper V) - with access to high-quality protein during the first three weeks there is a good potential to produce organic broiler meat with feed produced on-farm in northwestern Europe (Paper VI).
Authors/Creators: | Bassler, Arnd | ||||
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Title: | Organic broilers in floorless pens on pasture | ||||
Series Name/Journal: | Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae | ||||
Year of publishing : | 2005 | ||||
Number: | 2005:67 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 35 | ||||
Papers/manuscripts: |
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Place of Publication: | Uppsala | ||||
Publisher: | Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | ||||
ISBN for printed version: | 91-576-6966-X | ||||
ISSN: | 1652-6880 | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Doctoral thesis | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Agris subject categories.: | L Animal production > L02 Animal feeding | ||||
Subjects: | Not in use, please see Agris categories | ||||
Agrovoc terms: | broiler chickens, animal feeding, grazing, behaviour, botanical composition, campylobacter, coccidiosis, limbs, organic agriculture | ||||
Keywords: | behaviour, botanical composition, Campylobacter, coccidiosis, leg condition, on-farm diet, organic agriculture, pastured broilers, broilers | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-664 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-664 | ||||
ID Code: | 859 | ||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Animal Nutrition and Management | ||||
Deposited By: | Arnd Bassler | ||||
Deposited On: | 17 May 2005 00:00 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 19 Mar 2015 10:49 |
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