Somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 years ago, we joined an organization called the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association in hopes of bettering our expertise at growing delicious poultry outdoors in a rotational model without a bunch of medications, contrary to standard procedure for 99.9% of the chicken consumed in the US at that time.
It has been an interesting decade to see the group mature and grow into what it is today, boasting 1300+ worldwide members, 400+ of whom attended this year’s conference in Orlando. Though the organization was formed some 20-ish years ago, the conference idea only started about 10 years ago, and Matt was privileged to attend the very first one, which began to address the question of how we support each other as professionals in a fringe business like raising pastured poultry.
About four years ago, Matt was elected to the board, so he doesn’t have much choice in attending the conference anymore (and that is totally ok with him!) Plus he was signed up to do four different talks this year: electric fence, transporting poultry, building a farm store, and his second-ever farm comedy show (he’s a very funny guy!).
I like to attend and have been able to make it to about five of the conferences over the years, but I’m not crazy about flying these days, and of course the cost of bringing all our kids, or the complexity of leaving them at home, had made me decide not to go this year.
Even so, about a month before the conference, I was browsing the presentation line-up and saw three titles that fall into my most-favorite-thing-to-study category: Lean Manufacturing, which is all about how to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and increase quality without increasing workload. As a mom of six, efficiency is a MUST! And that’s true in small-time farming (or any small business) as well.
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I asked Matt, “Who is giving the talks on Lean? Is it Pat McNiff [a farmer who is also passionate about Lean]?”
“Well, Pat is doing one. Nathan Bonds is doing the other two.”
Nathan Bonds!!! Matt never mentioned that Nathan would be at the conference! He is an efficiency engineering consultant out of Rhode Island, and presented at the 2020 conference in Florida, which I got to attend. That conference was enlightening for me because it taught me to begin to think in terms of reducing waste in everything we do, from washing dishes to processing eggs to organizing the freezer to planning yearly production.
That’s what’s so unique about the APPPA Conference. We bring in experts from OTHER fields (besides farming) to sharpen and hone our skills in business, finance, leadership, communication… things that don’t sound like they have a lot to do with farming. But they are EVERYTHING in farming. Anyone can grow a chicken. But can they do it year after year, profitably without burning out or plowing over their family and team, in a way that builds an opportunity for a viable future in pasture farming?
Matt is always saying, “You can learn something from anyone.” And that is such a great outlook!
Even now that we’ve been farming for 16+ years, we still learn so much at the conference. This year was no exception and now that we are home, we are working on implementing some of the new knowledge and zeal we brought home with us.
Something really neat happened this year. We had four different continents represented, with attendees from Denmark, Brazil, and Australia. One of the Australian fellows stood up and said (paraphrasing): “We came to the USA to attend this conference, but we also took the opportunity to attend the IPPE (International Processing & Production Expo), which is a commercial poultry equipment exhibit. The contrast between these two events is remarkable–there was so much secrecy and technology protection there, compared to here where everyone is willing to share and help solve each other’s problems.” He was truly inspired by the supportiveness of our community. It is indeed unique!
I could go on but it might bore you… All this to report that we are excited for another year of pastured poultry production here in Jefferson, and hope you’ll enjoy the benefits of a decade-and-a-half of learning!
