Posts Tagged: chickens

Gov extends chicken cage rule to imports

Egg prices will rise about 2 cents each at the farm gate when new laws go into effect in 2015 that require egg-laying hens be given more space to move around. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2 in 2008, requiring the state's producers to modify their egg production practices.

This week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a law that requires the producers of all eggs sold in California - even if they are out of state - to follow the same guidelines.

In stories about the latest development, the media sought expert analysis from Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, who co-wrote a report that said the California egg industry produces almost 5 billion eggs per year and was worth $337 million in 2007.

Sumner told the San Francisco Chronicle egg prices will rise across the board because of the new production practices.

"People will eat fewer eggs, but not a lot fewer eggs because they are still pretty cheap," Sumner said. He noted that about 40 percent of eggs consumed by Californians are in processed foods or are "liquid eggs" that are not in shells and that those that are imported are unaffected.

In a story yesterday on KGO-TV, a San Francisco news outlet, Sumner called consumer reaction to the new laws "a bit of a puzzle."

Currently consumers can choose to purchase the more-expensive cage-free eggs, but about 97 percent of consumers choose regular eggs.

"This is a product that just about everybody eats and almost everybody chooses to eat eggs raised with hens in cages; and we take that product and make it illegal," Sumner said.

UC expertise sought on coyotes and organic chicken feed

University of California Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists are go-to people for the press when they are looking for expertise on a wide variety of topics. Here are a couple subjects UC academics tackled in recent days:

Suburban coyotes culled - Los Angeles Times

Times reporter Joe Monzingo wrote a feature story on suburban coyote trapper Jimmie Rizzo. According to the article, coyotes are becoming an increasing problem in some Southern California neighborhoods, putting small dogs, cats and even young children at risk. The article cited a 2004 UC Davis finding that the first reported coyote attack in California not attributed to rabies occurred in 1978. In the next 25 years, there were 89 attacks on people or on pets in the presence of people. More than three-quarters of those came after 1994.

"Our main thrust is to re-educate the public that wild animals are wild," the article quoted Rex Baker, a retired California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, professor who co-wrote with study with UC Davis wildlife specialist Robert Timm. "Once a coyote loses its fear of man, you have to re-instill it."

Warning to animal lovers: The last seven paragraphs of the article vividly recount Rizzo's MO as coyotes' "Angel of Death." For people with a tender heart for animals, it is not pleasant reading.

Growing grain for organic chickens - Stockton Record

Two UC advisors provided commentary for a story on an organic chicken producer who is attempting the unusual task of growing his own feed on a hillside farm near Mountain Ranch.

"We do almost no grains here in the foothills," the article quoted Kenneth Churches, the University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Calaveras County.

Reporter Dana Nichols also spoke to farm advisor Mick Canivari of San Joaquin County UCCE. He said the practice of dryland farming that the organic grower is undertaking saves the expense of irrigation, but it's risky.

"If you don't get the moisture, you don't get the yield," he was quoted.

Backyard chickens need same level of care as other pets

The latter third of a 1,100-word article on backyard chickens published today in the Christian Science Monitor was based on information from UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist Francine Bradley.

The article was a trend piece on growing interest in keeping chickens in urban or suburban settings to supply families with fresh eggs, organic fertilizer and pest control.

Bradley told reporter Maryann Mott that the responsibility taken on when adopting chickens is no different from that for more traditional pets, like dogs and cats.

"If you're going to be the steward of an animal, you should know how to take care of it before you purchase one," Bradley was quoted.

She told the reporter that information on rearing healthful chickens is available from Cooperative Extension offices in nearly every U.S. county.

"We know more about the nutrition for chickens than any other living animal, including humans," she says, "so there's no excuse for not feeding a bird well."

Luke Shapiro with backyard chicken.

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