Post by token on Oct 22, 2016 21:32:54 GMT 10
If your raising chooks for meat which arent the commercial bird (Cobb500 or Ross700) that we buy everywhere today cooked or raw for cooking, you would know that your birds might generally need growing out longer than 7 weeks. More like 16 weeks.
There is good reasons to not want to harvest your bird before this also, so i am trying to tailor my breeding program to that time of grow out anyways.
But things can get busy at time can slip away and 'how old are dem roosters we hatched again?' Anyone who has harvested a rooster above 20 weeks in general will tell you that its gunna take some fixing or they wont be tender, rather chewy and sometimes so much so, you'll not want to do that again.
Methods to fix such aside, i say, dont worry about it, grow them roosters out to 20 weeks and more if you like. In fact, thats what i do with plenty of mine, and here's why. When i harvest an animal i eventually process it into the cuts of meat that i want, ie: roasts, steaks, marinades, meat strips, cubes for kebabs and of course 'mince'. Here is where the older age really doesnt matter too much.
I always need mince, either for sausages or for patties or spagetti bog etc, and by growing out your farm bird longer, they do put on more weight for that purpose.
So if its legs and breasts or full birds or butterflied etc, harvest earlier, but if its mince, let that rooster grow out and then harvest them.
Hope that helps
There is good reasons to not want to harvest your bird before this also, so i am trying to tailor my breeding program to that time of grow out anyways.
But things can get busy at time can slip away and 'how old are dem roosters we hatched again?' Anyone who has harvested a rooster above 20 weeks in general will tell you that its gunna take some fixing or they wont be tender, rather chewy and sometimes so much so, you'll not want to do that again.
Methods to fix such aside, i say, dont worry about it, grow them roosters out to 20 weeks and more if you like. In fact, thats what i do with plenty of mine, and here's why. When i harvest an animal i eventually process it into the cuts of meat that i want, ie: roasts, steaks, marinades, meat strips, cubes for kebabs and of course 'mince'. Here is where the older age really doesnt matter too much.
I always need mince, either for sausages or for patties or spagetti bog etc, and by growing out your farm bird longer, they do put on more weight for that purpose.
So if its legs and breasts or full birds or butterflied etc, harvest earlier, but if its mince, let that rooster grow out and then harvest them.
Hope that helps
