Record Keeping on a Poultry Farm

Accurate record keeping is essential to monitor the performance and profitability of a flock, and to enable forecasting, programming and cash flow projections to be made. It also serves to provide an early warning of potential problems. The daily records should be on display for each house. At the farm, the following data must be made available to ease the decision making processes at the farm, as some broiler outgrowers may need to present this data too.

Daily records include:

·         Mortality and culls by house

·         Daily feed consumption

·         Daily water consumption

·         Water to feed ratio

·         Water treatments

·         Minimum and maximum daily temperatures

·         Number of birds taken for processing

·         Management changes

Flock Records

·         Feed deliveries (Supplier/amount/type/date of consumption)

·         Feed sample from each delivery

·         Live weight (daily/weekly/daily gain)

·         Medication (type/batch/amount/date of administration/date of withdrawal)

·         Vaccination (type/batch/amount/date of administration)

·         Lighting programme

·         Litter (type/date of delivery/amount delivered/visual inspection)

·         Chick delivery (number/date/time/count in boxes/truck temperature and humidity)

·         Stocking density

·         Chick Source (hatchery/breed/donor breeder code/chick weight)

·         Weights of each load at processing plant for broilers

·         Downgrades

·         Date and time feed withdrawn

·         Date and time catching started and finished

·         Cleanout (total bacterial counts/visual inspection)

·         Post-mortem results

·         Repairs and maintenance

·         Technical visits

This is where we will be ending our discussion for today. Remember to share your comments views and opinions.