By F. H. Jeter, Editor, Agricultural Extension Service, N.C. State College, as published in the Rocky Mount Telegram and also in the Sanford Herald on Jan. 26, 1948.
During the week ending January 17, the hatcheries and dealers who supply the Chatham area with baby chicks set 358,000 eggs, hatched off 151,000 baby chicks, and placed 168,000 chicks with the local poultrymen and broiler producers. I passed through Siler City the other afternoon and stopped briefly for a visit at the big poultry dressing plant there. Although it was after four o’clock in the afternoon, at the time of my visit, Mr. Goodwin, the manager, still had the processing line running and a full force hard at work. Both broilers and fat hens were being dressed for the northern market, and the beautifully dressed birds were being inspected and placed in iced boxes in almost endless procession. It is something to see that poultry plant in full operation.
Early in the morning, the farmers begin their deliveries of the live birds and then the endless chain operation of killing and dressing begins. The plant is kept spotlessly clean, and the birds go right from the processing line by the final inspection table and into crushed ice and the cold storage rooms with a minimum of effort or waste of time.
Just out in front of this poultry plant, Mr. Wood and his associates are constructing a giant meat processing and storage plant. Soon Siler City will become as noted for its meats is it is now for its broilers. County Agent J. B. Snipes says the smaller Webster poultry dressing plant out from Pittsboro on Route 3, has found it necessary to change its name from Yellow Tag Poultry to the Webster Poultry Company, due to a conflict in name with another company up in New Jersey. When the big established plants in Jersey and Delaware begin to feel the competition of quality broilers from North Carolina, it looks like we have begun to arrive. Mr. Webster has enlarged his plant so that he could process about 1,200 birds an hour, if necessary. Then he can cut down to 300 birds an hour when very careful dressing needs to be done.
MILK PLANT
Mr. Snipes says that Chatham County is also getting ready to handle its own milk and that a new plant is being set up in Pittsboro for this purpose. The Guernsey cattle breeders are going right ahead with their new county association. Tom Reeves is the hustling president of this organization and is pushing the production of purebred Guernsey dairy cattle throughout the county. Forty-five farmers and dairymen attended the last meeting of the cattle club.
RAT CONTROL
The folks of Chatham are joining in the rat control movement also. About 1,150 pounds of squill bait was distributed in the recent campaign, being put out in two days, and with telling results. Wade Paschal of Siler City said he used only one pound about his premises and that he picked up between 30 and 40 big ones the next day.
LIVESTOCK
The beef calves on feed are doing fine, and a number of Chatham young people have added pigs to fatten for the Durham Fat Stock Show during the last week in April. Suggestions are being made now that this Fat Stock Show be turned into a farmers’ spring festival for the Durham section and that it be held for a whole week.
In the meantime, Chatham farmers continue to improve their poultry flocks and to build better barns for their cows. Egg production from some of the flocks has fallen below the standard, and the owners have been doing some rigid culling to get rid of non-producers.
For instance, Horace Mann of Pittsboro, Route 2, culled 300 hens from his flock of 1,000 birds. He did the culling at night, using a flash light because he says he could spot the loafers much more easily this way. Prior to the culling, Mr. Mann was getting about 450 eggs a day from the 1,000 hens; after the 300 loafers had been removed, he continued to gather about 450 eggs a day and he had 300 less hens to feed. These went to the poultry dressing plant at a profit to the owner.
J.D. Jones of Pittsboro, Route 3; Burkett Burnett, Pittsboro, Route 1; and Will Bland of Pittsboro, also took out about one-third of their hens without great loss in total egg production. Paul Raper, efficient poultry assistant to J.B. Snipes, says this culling ought to be done regularly and carefully. Taking out a few non-layers all along during the season will not reduce the weekly production of eggs and will save much high-priced feed.
This same Horace Mann, who culled 300 eggs from his laying flock, is also an excellent dairyman. Right now he is completing an eight stanchion barn on his farm so that he can sell the top-priced grade “A” milk. Horace is a G.I. who is making good since he returned to the farm. To save money, he cut the logs for his timber from his own farm; hauled them to the sawmill, and is building the new dairy barn himself with only a bit of help from a neighbor with whom he swapped work. There is no electric line to his place, and so he has put in his own generating plant with power furnished by a gasoline engine.
How he manages to do all this and yet milk and feed 10 cows, in addition to looking after 1,000 hens, is a question; but the young fellow puts in long hours, and he is fast becoming known as a successful and progressive young farmer. Mr. Mann planted a three-acre pasture to ladino clover and orchard grass last fall, intending to graze it this coming season. But the clover grew so well on that fertile field that the farmer put his 10 cows onto the pasture last fall. Mr. Snipes says the grazing did not seem to hurt the pasture, despite the fact that it had hardly started to grow.
Howard Brafford of Siler City, Star Route, has just completed a new six-stanchion dairy barn for his eight cows and will begin the production of grade “A” milk within the near future. J.R. Biddle of Pittsboro, also plans to start the production of grade “A” milk from his nine cows as quickly as he can get a barn built. He planted three acres of ladino clover pasture last spring and has five acres of oats, rye grass, and crimson clover as a supplementary grazing crop for his winter.
ALFALFA
Chatham’s alfalfa crop is growing nicely. H.A. Harrington of Merry Oaks has a nice field of the legume which he planted early last fall. Mr. Harrington has been interested in the crop for some time; but he felt that it would not grow on his sandy land. However, he prepared the soil well, limed it heavily, and fertilized to get the best results. He is one of the few farmers in that sandy section of Chatham to grow alfalfa, but his crop is coming along nicely and he is well pleased.
Frank Goodwin of Apex, Route 3; J.B. Ingle of Siler City, Route 1; and Wade Paschal of Siler City comprise the new soil conservation committee for the county. The new Triple-A or PMA committee for Chatham is Wade Perry of Siler City, Route 1, chairman; Donald Moody, Bear Creek; and J.E. Lassiter, Apex, Route 3.
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