Turbokyckling. Its the industry, not the bird, that is broken

Welcome back to another video, folks. Today's video, I want to discuss faster and slower growing breeds of broiler chicken, something that I've got a lot of expertise in and something that's hot topic right now. And I've been talking about this openly for the last 12, 13 years. So in January 2026, Norway declared that it would stop raising the Ross 308, the really fast, what's called turbo chicken here in Sweden, by the end of 2027. And Sweden will probably follow suit. And so today I want to discuss really the difference with raising Ross 308 and the Hubbard strains, which are more associated with free-range organic production. I've raised both and I've raised a lot of chickens here, as you know, if you follow the channel. And so I want to discuss this topic because it's nuanced, like all these things. This debate is intensified right now in Sweden, and I feel in a good place to talk about it because we were the first pastured poultry producers in Scandinavia. And I've been documenting this journey, including the building of what's the lowest cost approved slaughter facility in Europe, to my understanding. And we have taught literally thousands of students all over the world and all across Scandinavia how to produce broilers, layers, etc. People are using our models to build their broiler pens, egg mobiles, and we've also documented the entire methodology and approach, including feed sheets that we did a lot of field research on, that people are using all over Scandinavia. We've trained hundreds of farmers from the region in this very slaughterhouse to do this practice efficiently, effectively, with very high levels of care and standards. And so I want to share my insights and experience with you today. Back when I started out here, there was not a single pastured poultry producer in Scandinavia or any organic birds on the market. We actually developed our own farm currency and pre-sold birds before we even moved here. And then we conducted hundreds of feed trials to work out the optimal way to feed healthy birds Outdoors in Swedish climate conditions. There are now a couple of organic producers, but these are industrial producers basically taking the industry outdoors. Typically the birds have access to outdoors, but they typically do not range very far from their homes, and those homes are not moving daily like you see on our farm. They're moving between batches. To be frank, it's not that good a model for the soil or for the bird, but it does allow for an organic system. Certified birds in the marketplace. Now, one of the reasons that Hubbards are important for organic production is that those breeds take longer to grow, and by organic standards in Europe, an organic broiler must reach over 80 days old. Now, Ross birds are typically slaughtered in the industry by day 40, 45, and that's because actually their mortality rates start skyrocketing, so they kind of have to. If you're raising something in a medieval village, of course its well-being and its welfare is not of the highest importance in that production, you could say. But we're raising birds very, very differently, and I've been writing and speaking out about this for over 15 years now. There's nothing wrong with high-production birds. It's management and management alone that keeps their welfare and health at The highest level. So we raise birds in 2 different ways, in batches of 75 birds in modified Salatin pens, referring to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in America, who's been running this model for many decades, and we've taught hundreds of producers here in Scandinavia how to do the same. We also raise birds in our roller pens, which allow for much more efficient moving of larger flocks of up to 1,000 birds whilst providing 30% more space. At the same time. These birds are moved daily onto fresh ground and integrated along with the sheep and the cows and the other livestock in our silvopasture systems where we integrate tree crops in our pastures. We actually move the birds twice a day in their final weeks because they're such big birds, they're pooping a lot, and we want to A, spread that manure evenly across our entire pasture, and B, we don't want them sitting in their own fecal matter. And in this manner, by stimulating the birds and doing time-controlled feeding— that means we feed the birds and let them get a little hungry in between feeds, spreading their feed over 3 feeds per day— they forage a lot more, and they'll take up to 15% of their diet from insects and plants in the pasture. That doesn't reduce their feed intake, but it does take place of their veterinary bill. We don't get sick animals because they're moving a lot more than they would in the industry. And they're developing healthy legs and strong skeletal systems, and they're foraging a lot more, so they're getting their vitamins and minerals, their salad bar, you could say. We've taught hundreds of Scandinavian producers to do the same. So if you find small-scale producers on Rico, ask them about how they are producing. Some of them are copying our models entirely, some of them are cutting corners, and you want to check who's producing your food and how they're actually doing it to make sure the level of care and integrity is there. So I tend towards raising the Ross 308 primarily because it's quicker, and I'm not technically organic certified. We only use organic feeds and we try and exceed organic standards. But to me, having raised both Hubbards and the Ross birds, it doesn't make much more sense to produce the same sort of bird in 40% more time. It just puts the price of chicken up. Now, I've spoken out at length about the Ross 308 because people typically have aversion to these birds because they're so rapidly growing. They have hybrid vigor, just like most vegetables, fruits, and animals that we find in supermarkets today. There's nothing wrong with hybrid vigor. The reason we like them is that it allows us to produce something predictable in a given time frame with a given amount of food, i.e., we can write a business plan. Perhaps the only unhealthy aspect of these kind of genetics is the ethics of the company that own the genetics. And the fact that these are terminal crossbreeds, we can't breed those birds ourselves. Now, the Ross 308 has its origins back in the UK, whereas the Hubbard has its deep origins in America. They're both fast-growing birds, but as I said, the Hubbard takes about 40% longer to produce the same slaughter weight. Let's talk about some of the issues people have with the Ross 308 birds. And if we look in my book, you can see birds that are raised to over a year old along with our laying flock And they got over 8 kilos in weight. Perfectly healthy chickens who were laying goose-sized eggs every second day and sleeping on the top perches up with the hens. And so I knew from my own direct experience over 10 years ago that management is key with these birds. A lot of people say they have skeletal problems and they don't develop strong legs. That's true of industry settings. We encourage our birds to move a lot from the day they are hatched in the brooder all the way through their lives through their constant movement through the pasture. So they develop really strong skeletons and bones, and we do not see leg problems. Another reason that people have aversion to the Ross birds is that they can have sudden death syndrome, like heart attacks, from just growing too quickly. Again, this is management-based alone. These are birds that will just eat themselves to death if they're given access to free food. But this is where time-controlled feeding is critical. We spread the feeds up over 3 times of the day, and we get them hungry and ranging and foraging in between to express their natural chicken physiology. And in this way, we have very low mortality rates. Last main reason people have issues with these birds is if they're sitting a lot, especially in their own fecal contaminants, they can get little hock burns. They can have skin burns from sitting in their own fecal matter. We've seen virtually no incidences of that on our farm. I think that is a symptom of sitting on their own manure in essentially medieval village conditions in a production barn. We don't see that in a pasture-raised setting because the birds are constantly moving onto fresh ground and they're hygienic, they're way more active, they're not just sitting the entire time. Now when we've raised Hubbard birds, they're very much the same. By my own observations, They are way more chicken-like, way more aggressive and foraging in the early days. But chickens grow on a sigmoid curve. They grow exponentially and then it sort of plateaus. Typically in the industry, a Ross bird would be slaughtered day 42, day 45. We would slaughter at day 63, day 70, and day 77 as a way of evening out the weights to to get a consistent weight across the bird. Now, the Hubbard birds take 40% longer to achieve the same weight, and they eat a little less. So in a sense, they stretch that S-shaped curve out, and their feed conversion is a little bit less efficient. But what you find in industry studies is their mortality rate in the industry is about half, which recovers some of that extra feed cost. Anyone that's bought our birds from the farm will know that our birds are much bigger than those you find in the industry. The industry typically slaughters at day 42 to day 47 just because their mortality rates get too high, and it's the economic pinch point for them. Feed conversions in industrial settings typically range from 1.4 to 1.5. That means if you put 1.5 kilos of feed in, you get 1 kilo of chicken out. For a Hubbard, that's slightly lower, 1.6 to 1.7, and it might take an additional 40% more time to produce that same carcass weight. It's worth noting that all the chickens we eat are very, very young birds. We're slaughtering them at less than a few months old, and they haven't really had time to learn to be a chicken. Like, our laying hens don't even arrive to the farm until they're 4 months old, and they're way more observant of their surroundings. Surroundings and way more curious to forage, etc. And that's the case with a lot of animals and plants that we eat. We eat baby things, which is another topic in itself. But one thing I've always prioritized is efficiency to get the right price out to the customer. By taking 40% longer, i.e., in a human-scale production where we're moving pens by hand every day, we don't have the vast economies of scale that the industry has, and chicken prices are already quite high. Followers from around the world are often flabbergasted at how much chicken costs here in Sweden. It's all relative when you take into account taxation and cost of living, etc. But to put up the price by, say, 20% because of raising slower-growing birds is going to push that point to, you know, past the typical daily eating of You know, that's associated with chicken, you could say. It's worth noting also that there are different breeds of Hubbard, and it's probably the JA-787 Hubbard that will take on the role of what Ross has been doing in Scandinavia. And it's a red-feathered bird or brown-feathered bird as opposed to a white bird. And as I said before, they definitely express more chicken-like behavior, especially in the early weeks. But they do end up big, heavy birds at the end of their lives. And so I noticed no discernible flavor profile change. If I gave you a bird from Hubbard and from Ross blind tested, I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference. There's no discernible taste. The rich fats and beta-carotenes that come with laying hens that have been alive for a year, a year and a half, are very, very different. And those complex flavors take a long time to evolve. And so I don't think there's any benefit for the customer other than perceived welfare issues. Now, do I think it's a good idea? Yes, for the industry, I think it's a great idea. For small-scale producers with high levels of intimacy in their management and welfare, I don't think it makes much difference. It's just going to push the price of chicken higher to the consumer. I think it's a great thing the industry because we've all seen the tragic videos of industrial productions. And one thing to make clear is the organic certification rules. So our broilers would not meet organic standards based on the age that we slaughter. But I don't want some arbitrary number from someone in Brussels who has never raised chicken dictating what myself as a poultry expert does with my flock. And so it's got no relationship to welfare, no relationship to the breed of chicken, really. It's an arbitrary number in essence. And so that's enough of a reason not to certify my entire farm organic, because I just don't believe that we should be restricted and have our hands tied by bureaucrats in other countries who don't have any expertise in raising birds. But based on studies that have already happened in Norway, in industrial settings, they see lower mortality rates both in transport and on farm, Lower leg lesions and lower incidence of ascites. So those are good signs. I think there's no harm in slowing down the racing car a little bit, as it were, and to have a little bit more vigorous, a little bit more robust birds. It makes sense. I support it, having raised both. I think both work, and it's management alone. But I think it's a good move for the industry in general, and hopefully those lines will be more easily available to small-scale producers, because ultimately the future I'm invested in is having a lot of small farms like ours around population centers rather than the need for mass industrial import-export businesses and huge productions of broilers that obviously welfare is not amongst the highest priority in their production values. So I think it's a good thing, but I also think if you're a consumer and you put If you put in a bit of due diligence and go and visit the farms where you buy food, you'll see that a lot of the problems described with the breed Ross 308 are management alone. And we've proven over nearly 15 years here that you can raise perfectly healthy, fast-growing birds and make some of the best chicken available in Sweden. We're super proud of the birds we produce, and I look forward to seeing where this all evolves in the future. Thanks so much for watching, folks. See you in a video soon. Bye.