ORICoop hosted an impromptu online presentation regarding the current Avian Flu outbreak that was attended by Pastured Poultry producers around Australia. Thanks particularly to Karen Gurney from Redsun Nutrition, Paolo Crofts from Tall Poppy Farm and Venu from Melbourne Eggs. And thanks to the event sponsors NASAA and Organic Industries of Australia
Karen Gurney – Biosecurity Best Practice
FEED SECURITY
Ensuring sufficient quantities of ingredients are available to meet your feed requirements on an ongoing basis.
Grains and proteins make up the bulk of the feed composition and as farming crops they are dependent on climatic conditions. Both floods and droughts affect the quality, the energy and protein content of the grain or seed. The poultry industry has a large demand for soybean meal, and the local production volume does not meet this requirement, so it is imported. With the spotlight on sustainability, we are looking at replacements for soybean meal, especially locally grown crops. There is a lot of nutrition research covering what ingredients and how much can be fed to broilers and layers to maintain performance.
Micro ingredients usually come from overseas. Supply can be affected by shipping, freight and production issues in different countries. Interruption to the supply chain was severe during the covid years and still is not back to being reliable. We have been advised the coming Q3 and Q4 months will have supply delays due to shipping.
The requirement for organic grains and protein sources is even more difficult as the production volumes are much less than non-organic. We are always looking to the next harvest, looking for new farmers to grow organic crops, keeping track of new research, new crop rotational practices to improve soil and yields.
A few years ago, the local crop volumes were low, we had to source from overseas and this required strict exemption from the certifying bodies to allow us to do that. We needed to do this to keep feeding the birds, with welfare being our priority.
FEED NUTRITION 
There are a few parts to this. First is the nutrients required by the bird, as a growing pullet and as an egg producing hen. During these stages and throughout life, the nutrient requirements of poultry change. They depend on genetics and breed, age, sex (males for broilers or breeder sires), body weight, reproductive state, ambient temperature, housing system, range activity, health status, and production aims of egg numbers or egg size.
The 2nd part to nutrition is the nutrient intake. This is affected by the nutrient composition of the feed and the amount eaten. Ingredient quality, feed form as a pellet or mash, contamination can affect the amount of feed eaten. For egg layers, the aim is to maximise egg production at minimum feed cost, while controlling egg size and egg quality.
It is important to always know your feed intake so that either the feed intake or the ration specifications can be adjusted to meet the hen’s requirements. For example, a young pullet coming into lay will be eating 70 – 80 grams/day, at 25 weeks she will be eating around 115g/day and then as she ages and produces eggs that will be 125g to 145g/day. Usually, we will feed at least 3 different feeds; early, mid and late layer rations all with very different nutrient specifications. When only one ration is fed for the whole of production, it gets a bit trickier and the hens are often fed ad lib to allow them to regulate their intake.
The 3rd part is the nutrients. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy, provided by cereal grains. Fats and oils provide energy and essential fatty acids. Proteins and the amino acids that make up protein and are used mainly for tissue growth, feather growth, egg production. Vitamins and minerals are required for normal health, growth and production, they are required for many physiological processes in the body.
FEED BIOSECURITY
This covers the feeding of safe feed. Some questions to consider how they relate to your farm;
There was a time when I didn’t know a lot about biosecurity, I looked after nutrition, and I considered biosecurity to be veterinary. I have clients in Qld, NSW, Vic and PNG. I quarantine before and after visiting poultry farms, I sign the visitors log. I use the foot baths, I wash the wheels of my car, I wear PPE or shower on and off farms. I am now so much more diligent. It is our responsibility to keep the industry resilient and going forward.
What can you do? Build biosecurity into your everyday best work practice. Develop and on-farm biosecurity plan, use the National Farm Biosecurity Manual for Poultry Production as your guide. Ask for help; understanding how you can better safeguard your business can be the difference between being anxious about the worst case scenario and feeling empowered to keep prospering as individuals, as a business and as an industry.
FAQS – Questions asked by Attendees with answers from presenters.
QUESTION – Can water treatment help? ie with Hydrogen peroxide , Acetic Acid , EM effective microbes, this is assuming that waters are blocked off from access other than watering posts.
Re transport declarations – if it is organic then documentation should accompany each incoming load of stockfeed, if you have capacity built into your supply agreement a clause that covers biosecurity issues.
QUESTION – We need to approach the government for subsidies to purchase effective equipment like the green lasers. We also need industry wide insurance to sustain businesses affected by closures. We spoke to Ag Vic today and they said it’s just a matter of time before the H5N1 appears in Australia. Do we have an industry body that can speak for us as a whole?
RESPONSE – currently there is not a Pastured Poultry representative group. However these are resources we would suggest growers get engaged with:-
QUESTION –Do chickens recover from Avian Influenza?
RESPONSE – Infected birds die from the severe symptoms with high mortality; it can be 100% mortality.
QUESTION – If the ducks are spreading it, are the ducks dying?
RESPONSE – Wild birds are carriers without showing symptoms of the disease.
QUESTION – How have these “outbreak farms” identified that they have Avian Influenza?
RESPONSE – The first signs would have been increased unexplained deaths or the onset of severe symptoms. This would have required veterinary assessment which if not explained would have escalated to calling the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline.
QUESTION – Why are the wild birds apparently not showing the signs of these viruses in a way that our poultry is showing up?
RESPONSE – Wild birds and ducks are the natural host of AI and they do not show symptoms of the disease. They shed the virus in saliva, nasal secretions and in faeces. Domestic poultry are very susceptible to the virus and develop symptoms and disease.
QUESTION – What is the risk with fermented food / sprouts and salmonella contamination
RESPONSE – Poultry feed is at high risk for salmonella contamination. Commercial feed is better when pelleted as the high temperatures used in the pelleting process kills the salmonella. Mash feeds and on farm mixing of ingredients requires good hygiene, good rodent control and clean ingredients. This will reduce the risk of contamination.
COMMENTS:- I sat on the Australian Eggs webinar yesterday and quickly discovered that farmers are not well equipped to stop the contamination from wild birds. And the pastured poultry people are almost blamed for this.
RESPONSE – Industry must be proactive – and have a high level of biosecurity and risk mitigation practices in place. Including records and paper trails.
COMMENTS:- Thank you Paola, great presentation. Are you only feeding fermented grain, or what else makes up your total ration? One further question, what is your brooder set up to raise your own chicks
Paola: We feed 36% of fermented organic grains and the rest is an organic pellet that they can eat as they choose. I have two brooders, one has heat and the other does not have heat until they go out on the pasture at 12 weeks. The brooder with heat is fully insulated and easy to clean with concrete floor so no rat issues. The outside brooder has an outside area with a high fence. Happy to discuss further.
Fermented food for 400 birds is 8 parts wheat to 1/2 part wheat (approx 20 kg in total) per day. This ration suggested was 8 parts wheat to 1/2 part peas, then double water, cover the wheat with twice as much water
Nicole: There is a professor who contacted me about antivirals for poultry against AI but it is only early days. If anyone is interested in this, happy to pass on his details.
Paola: A question regarding pursuing herd immunity rather than mass culling?
RESPONSE – Herd immunity is not recognised at this stage due to high fatality in existing cases.
Speakers contacts for further enquiry:-
Karen Gurney – Redsun Nutrition, Poultry Nutrition specialist
Email – redsunnutrition@optusnet.com.au
Paola Crofts – Tall Poppy Farm
Email –tallpoppyfarm@gmail.com
Venu – Melbourne Eggs
Email – vmetla@tekbytes.com.au
Jean Belstead – Natural homeopathic remedies for poultry (mentioned during latter part of presentation)
AVIAN FLU NATURAL PREVENTION & TREATMENT
Homeopathic component:
Herbal component:
Contact Jean directly to order remedies via email – jeanbelstead@gmail.com
Other Important Resources:-
Secure poultry feeders that minimises access by wild birds:-
Thanks again to our Sponsors – NASAA and Organic Industries of Australia
And our Speakers – Tall Poppy Farm Melbourne Eggs Redsun Nutrition
Thanks to those that attended the online event and asked lots of questions. We hope this blog is a helpful resource for producers that are managing and mitigating the risks of Avian Influenza. Feel free to contact the speakers directly via email or to follow ORICoop to connect with other pastured and/or organic producers for other beneficial resources.
Link to the live recording of the online Pastured Poultry event below or link HERE. We welcome you to listen, share and learn! And be proactive in mitigating the risk of Avian Flu and a health pastured poultry growing system on your farm!
ORICoop and the presenters have collated this information to the best of their ability. It is provided in good faith and should be used as suggestions only for mitigating risk to a poultry enterprise. At no time does ORICoop or presenters guarantee these suggestions will prevent infection or transmission in what is an unknown or quantified risk. We recommend you seek expert veterinary advice for any sick birds and consult with your Agricultural department or certifier with regard to any treatment protocols.
The little known lupin is likely the most powerful superfood you’ve never heard of. While lupins have been used as a food for as much as 6000 years in the Andean highlands and over 3000 years around the Mediterranean, they are slowly making their way onto supermarket shelves in Australia and around the globe. Meanwhile, farmers are recognising their multiple advantages in both sustainable cropping systems and as a high-protein addition to animal feed.
With over 200 species, lupins are grown in a wide array of regions across the globe, ranging from the Mediterranean to the southwestern United States, northern Mexico to both eastern and western parts of Australia. Two varieties of lupin are most commonly grown in Australia, with the majority of lupin production occurring in the winter/spring rain-fed parts of southwestern Western Australia. Australia produces about 730,000 metric tonnes of lupins per year, the equivalent of approximately 80–85% of the world’s lupin production. About 30% are used domestically within Australia, while approximately 70% are exported to Asia, North Africa and the Middle East for animal feed. As a high-protein grain, lupins are most commonly grown and harvested for human and animal consumption, yet they also hold many advantages in both cropping and mixed cropping–livestock farming systems.
Farmers can enrich their soil naturally by planting an annual that produces a kaleidoscope of pea-like flowers with bold spikes of vibrant purples, pinks and blues, rich reds and yellows, or crisp, clean whites, attracting a range of pollinators including bees and butterflies. In regenerative cropping systems, lupins produce a significant nitrogen contribution for subsequent crops in soils. They provide a disease break for cereal crops and can help control grass weeds within well planned cropping sequences. With taproots that stretch deep into the earth, lupins are drought-tolerant and also help break up compacted soil. When lupin plants die back, the taproots slowly break down, increasing the organic content in the soil, helping the soil retain water. These combined benefits can increase the yields of cereals following lupin crop rotation, particularly when grown in sandy soils.
The nutrient content of lupin grain, in protein, amino acid, energy and mineral levels makes it both a nutritional and economical addition to stock feed formulations. Among the various grain legumes used in stock feed, lupins can be used as an alternative to soybeans and are highly regarded as feed for poultry, pigs, ruminants, and fish. Research has shown that replacing soybean meal with lupin meal as an alternative poultry protein feed source reduces cost of production and improves poultry egg productivity. In other studies, using lupin grain in feed rations has been shown to increase the milk production of beef and dairy cattle. It can be more valuable to include in the diet than cereal grain because it tends to not lower the fat content of milk (as high levels of cereal grains may do). Researchers have also investigated the potential for lupin grain to be used as a plant based feed source in aquaculture operations and found that lupin was particularly useful for fish diets because of the highly digestible level of protein, good levels of digestible energy and highly digestible phosphorus.
While the crop is grown mostly to produce stock feed, there is a small, but growing market for lupin grain for human consumption. Lupins are slowly growing in popularity among consumers due to their many health benefits: protein-rich, highly nutritious, sustainable, and versatile, lupins are a powerhouse of goodness. They are one of the richest sources of plant protein and fibre (at least twice as much as other legumes) and packed full of nutrients and antioxidants including thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and zinc. Eating lupin beans has been linked to lowering blood pressure, improving blood lipids and insulin sensitivity and favourably altering the gut microbiome in studies. The Australian food industry is beginning to recognise the value of lupin and a range of lupin products are now available, including whole lupin flakes, flour, crumb, semolina, or enriched food products such as pasta, cereal and cookie mix.
ORICoop has been working with key organic growers in Western Australia and the Riverina – to expand and diversify their crop selections to include lupins. This provides producers a unique and valuable intercrop option – and enables a strong cash crop for organic dairy and poultry producers. ‘There is a strong appetite for lupins as a livestock feed, and with our Farmers Own ‘ORCA’ Brand we are pushing through the barriers to get bulk lupins from growers to end users in Victoria, Southern Australia and Queensland. Our next ambition is to tap into strategic export markets. This legume has a well deserved place of prominence in the organic and regenerative cropping market – and we are looking forward to it’s initiation across the Australian organic sector’ says Carolyn, ORICoop Executive Director
Ian and Jodi are well experienced with growing lupins in Western Australia. And are thriving in growing them under an organic system. ‘Lupin crops play a pivotal role in the viability of organic and regenerative farming systems in Western Australia. They present to the farmer a range of critical advantages over other crop rotation options available such as suitability in deep acid sandy soils, excellent nitrogen fixation capability, disease resistance and disease break for other crops, impressive stockfeed quality and volume of post harvest residues and competitive demand and value of lupin seeds.
Nitrogen is typically applied to a crop in the form of urea, and although urea application can result in vigorous crop growth it has a hidden destructive action on soil health and long term fertility that requires additional fertilisation to overcome. Organic and regenerative farming systems limit or prohibit the use of urea for this reason. Lupins can fix similar levels of nitrogen from the atmosphere directly into the soil naturally and even increase soil health making them the goto natural fertiliser for the environmentally conscious consumer and farmer. The lupin seed and after harvest crop residues provide an additional benefit of an outstanding high value stockfeed source for grazing ewes and lambs. Ewes and lambs grazing or being fed lupins outperform those running on grass crop feeds and harvest residues providing substantially more lambs and reach market weight far quicker than those running on grass crop grains and residues.
With its unique macro and micro nutrient composition, there is growing evidence that incorporating lupin ingredients into animal and human diets can have direct health benefits. On farms, the benefits range from improved soil structure and water efficiency to increased yields and profitability. With its wealth of advantages, lupins are fast becoming a key ingredient in sustainable agriculture and sustainable diets.
To enquire about bulk lupins you can contact ORICoop HERE
Story written by Eva Perroni
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