Chicken Farming

For most farmers, September is a jam-packed month with finishing up hay to getting choppers and combines ready for harvest. Some may not know, however, that September is also known as National Chicken Month. For over two decades the National Chicken Council has banded together with major chicken producers in the U.S. to promote chicken sales in September. As a result, September is known as National Chicken Month. This means it might be the right time to answer the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

This past week my youngest brother Luke became a chicken farmer. Each year at Northeast High School in Goose Lake, freshman FFA members get the opportunity to take broiler chickens home and raise them until they are market-ready. Lucky for us, Luke is a part of this year’s class and now we have another species of chores to add to our list. 51 little chores to be exact. Two years ago when it was my turn to raise chickens as a member of the freshmen class, I had 50 chickens. Luke thought it was necessary to top me so he got 51. I remember I went with 50 because my older brother Todd only had 38. We always try to outdo the other siblings!

Growing chickens was one of my favorite first experiences in FFA. Being raised with a beef background it was fun to learn hands-on about how to raise something new. The biggest thing I learned was how to transport the chickens. When going to haul chickens home from the school, don’t bring the nice truck because no matter how many air fresheners you add, it will still smell like chickens as it is necessary to haul them in tubs in the cab of the pickup. And we still giggle about how many head we had in the gooseneck trailer that day we helped haul our FFA chickens to the harvesting facility. Not every day do you say you had 200 head in a little 24-foot trailer.

All in all, Iowa is a proud home to a growing broiler industry with a rapid increase over the past year due to easily accessible food sources for the broilers. Fun fact, the average American eats around 83 pounds of chicken per year. Be sure to help out your chicken eating average and the bottom lines of Iowa chicken farmers this September. Happy National Chicken Month and let's hope Luke raises all 51 to happy, healthy, finished chickens!



~ Kesley Holdgrafer