A recent study from Oregon State University’s veterinary college found that planting hedgerows in pasture-raised chicken farms may reduce heat stress to help certain chicken breeds grow faster and increase their immune response to better enable them to fight off pathogens.
A recent study from Oregon State University’s veterinary college found that planting hedgerows in pasture-raised chicken farms may reduce heat stress to help certain chicken breeds grow faster and increase their immune response to better enable them to fight off pathogens.
This, in turn, could improve profit margins for commercial poultry farms who choose pasture-rearing as a more humane way of raising chickens for meat.
The study’s findings are also applicable to anyone raising chickens at home, the study’s authors say.
“The aim of the study was mainly to help smaller producers, people that sell to farmer’s markets and smaller operations that do backyard work, but I think it definitely could benefit people who are just hobbyists,” said Marissa Pollak, one of the authors on the paper, published in Frontiers in Animal Science, and a fourth-year student in the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine at OSU.
Read more at: Oregon State University
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