AgSpeak Blog

Normally this week of the year we would be wrapping up IPPE and we would be taking this time to showcase again all that we shared with you at the show. But of course, this tradeshow season is a little different. since we couldn’t see you in Atlanta, we didn’t get to share with you…

Reuben King, a 29-year old poultry farmer and business owner, has made a name for himself in Bradford, OH. For 22 years, Reuben has helped out the family slaughtering chickens. His parents, William and Marilyn King, started raising and processing chickens by hand in the barnyard in 1983. They purchased an automatic picker and fixed…

[pdf-embedder url="https://valcotest.group6inc.com/wp-content/uploads/AgSpeak_V5N1.pdf"]

[pdf-embedder url="https://valcotest.group6inc.com/wp-content/uploads/AgSpeak-Vol-4-No-2-scr.pdf" title="AgSpeak Vol 4, No 2 - scr"]

[pdf-embedder url="https://valcotest.group6inc.com/wp-content/uploads/AgSpeak-Vol-4-No-1.pdf"]

This year has certainly been a tumultuous one. It started our normal enough. The International Production & Processing Expo took place in Atlanta, Georgia. We featured our newest addition to the VAL-CO fan line, the variable speed V-Fan. VAL-CO has stepped up to help achieve the ideal environment with the introduction of the versatile, highly…

Woody breast syndrome has been an on-going concern for integrators. It’s not a modern problem; research has shown that it did exist in genetic lines from the 1950s, it was just less noticeable because the condition did not progress far enough. While not detrimental to the birds themselves, it does create a less-than-desirable end product…

Don’t Let Salmonella Ruin your Holiday When it comes to food safety, everyone has a roll to play. Farmers and integrators often work closely together to ensure that the birds live a healthy life and are processed in sanitary conditions. The entire food chain is designed to reduce salmonella contamination, but let’s face it, the…

Alternative Breeder Management Practices: Male Restaurant Feeding Male “restaurant” feeding is a breeder management practice that is utilized by some integrators in certain parts of the world. It is a feeding practice where males are trained to come to the sound of a whistle to enter a separate feeding pen. This allows the males and…

This week we celebrate all that we are thankful for around the traditional roast turkey. But what do you really know about that magnificent bird? The North American Turkey was nearly hunted to extinction by the early 1900s when there was just 30,000 birds left. Today, there are nearly 7 million. The dangly appendage on…

Post-weaning Diarrhea PWD affects pigs in the first two weeks after weaning, commonly characterized by diarrhea, and followed by dehydration, sudden death, and growth delays. Stress factors, including removal from the sow, dietary changes, and new environments and pig groupings, may decrease immune function and lead to intestinal gut dysfunction. PWD is associated with e.…

Swine Respiratory Disease (SRD) How to recognize the signs and symptoms Swine respiratory diseases are the largest cause of swine casualties in the United States. Often, multiple strands of bacteria are involved which lead to an increased length and harshness. Multiple strands also can cause infected pigs to go untreated or mistreated due to the…