Devon poultry farmer James Smaldon NSch 2019 has published his Nuffield Farming Report titled ‘Managing poultry welfare in a transitioning world of technology’, sponsored jointly by Three Counties Agricultural Society and McDonald’s UK & Ireland.
The report is now available on the Nuffield International website at www.nuffieldinternational.org/live/reports or can be downloaded directly at https://bit.ly/JSmaldonReport.
Study Objectives
- To identify technology likely to be commercially available for the UK poultry industry in the next decade.
- To understand various concepts of bird welfare.
- To establish the implications that technology may hold for the welfare of poultry.
Countries Visited
Canada, USA, Italy, UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium
Messages
- Continuous welfare assessment is coming; this can provide farmers with the ability to react to welfare challenges before they become issues, whilst also benefiting consumers with assured verification.
- Human interaction will continue to be vital within poultry farming. Technology should be embraced which complements, not substitutes, stockmanship.
- Bird welfare is at risk of falter if technology is not introduced carefully. People tend to trust technology too quickly and lose focus before they should.
- Over time, the role of stockmanship is likely to move away from manual and towards supervisory, with more time available to care for birds.
