The age-old question puzzling mankind has always been, ?Which came first, the chicken or the egg?? Maybe the question shouldn?t be which came first. Maybe it should be, ?Where are we going to put the chickens and the eggs??
Audio: Agribusiness Matters 9-25-18
Last week we acknowledged the first-step in going cage-free is defining what the term ?cage-free? is going to mean. Today, we are going to investigate the facilities. Can producers go cage-free in their existing structures? It may seem like a simplistic answer, but Dr. Hongwei Xin of Iowa State says there are only two options. New structures or conversion.
The next question is what will be more cost-effective? Will it be new barns, or retrofitting existing barns? Iowa Poultry Association President JT Dean offers some insight.
Dean also says finding labor to do the conversions is another cost consideration.
We have already looked at two big question in the quest to go cage-free, and we haven?t even talked about the birds or the eggs produced. Guess what? We won?t tomorrow either. I told you the list of questions to consider would be long.
If you missed it, part 1 of this look into cage-free egg production in Iowa can be found here.
