Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

The author holds high hopes for his $37 Ross or Cobb pastured chook once it hits Today’s egg shoppers are spoilt for choice and occasionally confused. his oven for next Sunday’s roast.
The chicken and the egg
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were collected by hand.
HAVING chirped away last month about the al- most endless and poten- tially confusing range of choices for egg buyers, I simply had to take a couple of phone pics of the myriad variety of eggs on offer when sub- sequently shopping at a favourite nearby inde- pendent supermarket.
Cobb broiler.
Frozen immediately af-
and improved mobility. He also chases what he refers to as “good live- ability”, with improved natural resistance to dis- eases endemic to Austral-
The shop concerned does a great job of crea- tively displaying its pro- duce, contrasting big time with what the two big su- permarkets tend to do, or not do.
The Sommerlad chicken story is a particularly fas- cinating one and I’m de- termined to get my hands on one, albeit availability seems limited here in the west.
all of these factors con- tribute to a bird with far better animal welfare out- comes than modern broil- ers, particularly with re- gard to mobility and heat tolerance.
The colourful egg carton packaging also added to the visual shopper-stopper experience.
Handy information or information overload, I wondered.
Michael Sommerlad has been working on the genetics of Sommerlad chickens for maybe 20 years, selectively breed- ing a meat bird that can thrive in the harshest of Australia’s outdoor condi- tions.
Sommerlad chickens are 100 percent Australian, developed specifically for Australian farming condi- tions and are selected for the table between 10 and 16 weeks of age – stand- ard supermarket chickens are typically processed at about five weeks.
If shopper choice was ever insulated from the realities of household budgets and big picture economics, I doubt ‘old school eggs’ would be around much longer, other than in foodservice.
I look forward to check- ing the flavour claim when I get my hands on one.
I expect their shelf life with shoppers will dimin- ish in due course.
Can’t wait.
ter killing, as per the pho- to and bought from a bou- tique Perth metropolitan butcher, it should do the trick once thawed, nicely stuffed, then crisped up in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes, before finishing off for one hour at 180C.
ian poultry flocks. According to Michael,
Similarly, most of the cartons and adjacent sig- nage told the story of the production type and place of origin – including de- tails such as the fact eggs
I further wondered how categorised cage eggs and even barn laid for that matter could compete in today’s shopper sensory overloaded world.
He prioritises opti- mal animal welfare and food quality from a bird with the genetic capac- ity to better exploit a free range pastured environ- ment, with features such as active foraging behav- iour and enhanced physi- ological capacity to uti- lise grass and other plant materials, increased heat resistance, balanced body confirmation, strong legs
A Sommerlad’s natu- rally slow growth rate al- lows its organs, muscles and bones to grow in har- mony, and its longer out- door life allows time to develop intramuscular fat and nutrient dense meat, with outstanding texture and flavour, according to Michael.
I’m thinking that they do still compete, albeit only at a person’s price point.
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, April 2021
Though I had initially sought to buy a Sommer- lad pasture-raised chook, I ended up with a Ross or
Egg producers shell out big bucks when it comes to colourful branding and clever story telling.
www.poultrynews.com.au
Issues around animal welfare, place of origin, farming system, feed- ing formulas, and health and supplement regimes are all increasingly in- fluencing how cashed up shoppers and those with healthy credit card limits make their buying deci- sions when it comes to food items.
In other words, unless egg producers and in- deed chicken producers can pitch palatable, truth- ful consumption stories, backed by a form of repu- table auditing and perhaps industry or governmental certification, they may struggle to reach inside the hearts, minds and pockets of modern con- sumers.
Speaking of chicken meat, I recently splashed out and spent $20/kg on a pasture-raised meat bird.
That was a total of $37 on what I hope roasts up into a true taste delight.