Two top poultry meetings planned this September

Top Story (Aug. 10, 2010)

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

Consider this.
In 2007 alone, farmers across the country grew out 8.9 billion (that’s b as in boy billion) chickens.
On Delmarva in 2009, there were 1,667 growers for the four integrators – Allen’s Family Foods, Mountaire Farms, Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods.
One in every 12 jobs on Delmarva is directly or indirectly tied to the poultry industry.
Maryland ranks eighth in the country in poultry production, Virginia ninth and Delaware 10th.
However, Sussex County, Del., is the nation’s No. 1 broiler producing county.
The wholesale value, in 2009, of Delmarva poultry and poultry products, according to the industry’s trade association, Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc.,  was —  hold tight! — $2,056,268,000.
Thus, it is no surprise that two major poultry meetings will be held on Delmarva in September.
The 2010 Delmarva Poultry Conference will be held Wednesday, Sept. 1, at the Clarion Resort Fountainebleau Hotel in Ocean City.
As many as 200 flock supervisors, growout managers and other officials and staff of the four integrating companies will be on hand, together with a few farmers to hear a series of presentations and discussions of new research, major industry issues and other “hot topics.”
Topic titles include such timely discussions as “Risk Assessment of Collapsed Poultry Houses during the 2010 Blizzard, ” “Litter Management Strategies,” and “EPA CAFO Inspections and Your Farm.”
Registration will open at 7 a.m. Presentations will be heard from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Outstanding Flock Supervisors  will be honored during the session.
The registration fee is $70 per person and refreshments and lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. Foor more information, contact Jeri Cook at he Lower Eastern Shore Research and Education Center,  410-742-1178 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Then, as September draws to a close, the second one-day workshop for new and existing poultry growers  on poultry farm management will be held at Chesapeake College.
The topics that will be addressed are farm management, site management and maintenance, best management practices, mortality, manure handling, litter management, windbreaks/vegetative environmental buffers, financial/recordkeeping, concentrated animal feeding operation regulations, nutrient management, comprehensive nutrient management plans, Environmental Protection Agency inspections and emergency preparedness. A certificate of completion will be awarded to each participant.
The program was developed and is presented by a team of  University of Maryland Extension staffers  - poultry specialist Jennifer Timmons and ag agents Jennie Rhodes of Queen Anne’s County and  Richard Nottingham of Somerset County.
It is an outgrowth of the issuance by Environmental Protection Agency in 2008 of its rules and criteria for  confined animal feeding operations, so-called CAFOs.
Those criteria included a stipulation of  “zero discharge” of pollutants but no\ guidance as to how to achieve it.
Maryland established a task force, headed by Kenny Bounds of MidAtlantic Farm  Credit, to explore best management practices which might strive to meet that zero-discharge goal.
Bounds said one of the major recommendations was an all-out effort to educate growers ‘so that they would know what to expect from an EPA CAFO inspection.”
The workshop will be held Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 at Chesapeake College’s Economic Development Center, Room EDC 27 in Wye Mills.
It will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration fee is $30 and  includes continental breakfast, lunch and materials.  Registrations are requested by Sept. 20.  
For more information, call or email Rhodes, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 410 758 0166 or Timmons, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 410 742 1178.
To register contact: Jeri Cook at 410-742-1178 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it