EASTERN COAST BROILER
Healthy Chicken Meat.
Our broiler farms one of the largest projects producing poultry meat in eastern KSA. Annual capacity of broiler farms 4290000 placement and slaughter 4075000 in 29 houses in three farms: Safwa, Abu-Maen and Tofieh farm.
Broiler Facts
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International quality standards
No use of hormones
Strict hygiene and health practices
High farm Biosecurity
Our Detailed Process
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Hatchery to farm
Chicks are transported from the hatchery to broiler farms, usually in ventilated chick boxes in specially designed, air-conditioned trucks. Although the remains of yolk sac taken into its abdomen at hatching contains nutrients and moisture to sustain the chick for up to 72 hours, it is important that chicks receive warmth, feed and water within a reasonable time of hatching.
Shedding
Meat chickens are farmed in large closed poultry houses, usually referred to as ‘sheds’, ‘houses’ or barns, but sometimes as ‘units. Shed sizes vary, but a typical new shed is 120 meters long and 12 meters wide and holds about 25,000 adult chickens. The larger sheds can contain up to 30,000 broiler chickens. There are often ten sheds on the one farm.
An increasing number of chicken sheds in EASTREN COAST have ‘tunnel ventilation’. Tunnel ventilation sheds have fans at one end of the shed which draw air into the shed through cooling pads in the walls, over the chickens and out the fan end of the house at high speed. Three or three temperature sensors in the poultry house allow the fan, heating, and cooling settings to be adjusted as often as every five minutes.
Feed lines and pans run the length of the shed and are supplied automatically by silos from outside. Water lines run the length of the shed, with drinkers at regular intervals. Water and feed are placed so that chickens are never more than about 2 meters from food and water.
Rearing the chickens
- Spreading a thick layer of clean and fresh litter, such as sawdust, wood shavings hulls across the floor for bedding for the bird.
- Preheating the shed.
- Checking feed and water systems.
On arrival at the broiler farm, day-old chicks are placed onto the floor of the shed, where they are initially confined to an area of between a half to one third of the total shed area (the ‘brooding area’) and given supplementary heating from gas heaters. This is called brooding and the heaters are referred to as brooders. Extra feed pans and water dispensers are provided in the brooding area, and the bedding may be partly covered with paper to stop dropped feed from getting into the bedding and spoiling.
Both male and female chicks are reared as meat chickens.
Shed temperature and humidity can be managed by altering ventilation and using stirring fans and water mists. Air quality is also managed by varying shed ventilation.
Generally, feed and clean water is available 24 hours a day, also sometime make feed available at specific ‘mealtimes’ only. This practice may stimulate better digestion, improve bone strength, and prevent birds from becoming over fat. For further information on what chickens are fed.
Harvesting the meat chickens
In EASTREN COAST, a percentage of chickens are harvested from most flocks on several occasions. Harvesting, also known as ‘partial depopulation’, ‘thinning out’, or ‘multiple pick-ups, depending on need for light or heavy birds. Thinning out sheds allows more space for the remaining birds and reduces the natural temperatures in the shed.
The first harvest might occur as early as 28-30 days and the last at 35 days.
Chickens are often harvested at night as it is cooler, and the birds are more settled. They are picked up by specialized contract ‘pick-up’ crews under low lighting conditions so that they are calm and easy to handle. They are usually caught by hand and placed into plastic crates designed for good ventilation and safety from bruising during transport. These crates are handled by specialist forklift equipment and loaded onto trucks for transport to the processing plant.
Cleanout
When all the birds have been removed from the shed (after about 35 days), it is cleaned and prepared for the next batch of day-old chickens.
The next batch arrives in five days to two weeks, giving time to clean the shed and prepare for the next batch. The break also reduces the risk of common ailments being passed between batches as many pathogens die off.
All farms undertake a full cleanout after every batch. This includes removing bedding, brushing floors, scrubbing feed pans, cleaning out water lines, scrubbing fan blades and other equipment, and checking rodent stations. High pressure hoses clean the whole shed thoroughly. The floor bases are usually rammed earth and because low water volumes are used, there is little water runoff.
The shed is disinfected, using low volumes of disinfectant which is sprayed throughout. An insecticidal treatment may be applied in areas where shed insects such as beetles are a problem and may threaten the next batch. Disinfectants and insecticidal treatments must be approved by the KSA Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority as safe and fit for use in broiler sheds.
Company veterinarians or servicemen may test sheds after a full cleanout to confirm sheds have been cleaned and potential disease agents removed.
Questions & Answers
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Are Eastern Coast chickens kept in cages?
Eastern coast meat chickens are not kept in cages. They are raised in large sheds that are environmentally controlled.
Are chickens fed hormones in Eastern Coast?
Eastern coast chickens are not fed hormones. Nor are they administered hormones in any other way. Their rapid growth occurs naturally due to selective breeding and optimal nutrition. Independent tests by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, as part of the National Residue Survey, confirm that EASTREN COAST chicken meat is free of added hormones.
Why do many people wrongly believe that chickens are fed hormones?
We believe that one reason might be that people note that the chickens sold these days in supermarkets, butcher shops and chicken shops are much bigger than what they may recall them to have been 20 or 30 years ago. They may wrongly conclude that this must be the result of some unnatural intervention. The actual reason for this increased growth rate and size is the ongoing extensive selective breeding programs that have been adopted by the industry over the past 50 years, which aim for not only faster growing birds but also for healthier and more disease resistant chickens.
Are chickens genetically modified?
Chickens are not genetically engineered or modified. Improvements in their growth, feed conversion efficiency, tenderness and other characteristics are entirely due to traditional cross-breeding and selective breeding techniques.
Are chickens fed GM feed?
Soya bean meal, which provides an important source of protein and amino acids in the chicken Much of the world’s soya bean production is genetically modified and in countries such as the US, traditional soya bean meal becomes mixed with genetically modified meal during processing, storage and distribution. Non-GM soya bean meal can no longer be sourced in sufficient quantities to meet the poultry industry’s needs and thus feed is likely to contain GM soya bean meal.
Why do chickens grow so quickly?
Meat chickens, also known as broilers, have been selectively bred over the past 60 years for growth rate and to be highly efficient at transforming feed into meat This is why they reach their optimal market weight and quality much more quickly than the strains of chickens from which they were originally derived.
In this respect modern meat chickens are also quite different from egg chickens (or layers). Chickens used in egg farms are selectively bred for their capacity to produce eggs. For this reason, the meat chickens grow much more quickly and to a larger size than layers.
How do you know chicken is properly cooked?
Chicken should always be thoroughly cooked. While cooking to a temperature of 72 degrees should be sufficient, we recommend that, to be sure, you should cook chicken to about 82 degrees at its core. The amount of time you need to cook chicken of course depends upon the type of cut and how big it is, although a good rule of thumb is you cook it for about an hour per kilo. A simple way to get a good indication of whether it has been cooked enough is to stick a fork into the thickest part of the meat – the juice that comes out should be clear; furthermore there should be no pink colored meat left right through the thickest part.
Why is it important to cook chicken?
All raw meat and many other foods contain bacteria, and most are harmless. However, some of these bacteria, when ingested in sufficient quantities, can produce food poisoning. The good news is that all these organisms are very easily killed by normal cooking temperatures. Therefore, if you cook chicken properly and follow basic hygienic food handling practices in the kitchen then the risk is removed.
How many meat chickens are produced in Eastern Coast?
An annual total of about four million chickens are produced and processed for chicken meat. This equates to more than seven million kg of chicken meat.
How are antibiotics used?
Antibiotics are important to ensure the health of chickens. Only antibiotics approved by KSA regulatory authorities and administered in accordance with strict guidelines are used. For details on the industry’s antibiotics policy, The National Residue Survey undertaken annually by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry provides consumers with the assurance that no antibiotic residues are found in chicken meat.
What are the fine white stripes sometimes seen in chicken meat?
The fine white striations on chicken meat that can sometimes be seen running parallel to the regular muscle are sometimes referred to as “white striping”. White striping in chicken meat is seen worldwide. It is not a food safety issue, nor does it indicate a bird welfare issue. The condition results from the substitution of muscle tissue with connective tissue and some fatty deposits.
There are varying scientific opinions as to the cause of the condition, including most recently that the amino acid composition of the chicken diet can influence it. However, the causes of the condition are still being researched.