Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, eggs or feathers. The practice of raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes waterfowls of the family Anatidae but does not include wild birds hunted for food known as game or quarry.
Breed broiler is any chicken that is bred and raised specifically for meat production. Most commercial broilers reach slaughter weight between four and six weeks of age, although slower growing breeds reach slaughter weight at approximately 14 weeks of age. Typical broilers have white feathers and yellowish skin. Broiler or sometimes broiler-fryer is also used sometimes to refer specifically to younger chickens under 2.0 kilograms, as compared with the larger roasters.
Free range denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals can roam freely outdoors for at least part of the day, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day. On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, thereby technically making this an enclosure, however, free range systems usually offer the opportunity for the extensive locomotion and sunlight that is otherwise prevented by indoor housing systems. Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.
Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited, a company of the Charoen Pokphand Group, is an agro-industrial and food conglomerate headquartered in Thailand. It is one of the world's largest producers of feed and shrimp, and is also a global top three producer of poultry and pork.
ContiGroup Companies, Inc (CGC) was founded by Simon Fribourg in Arlon, Belgium, in 1813 as a grain-trading firm. Formerly known as Continental Grain, ContiGroup has expanded into a multinational corporation with offices and facilities in 10 countries while employing more than 13,500 people worldwide. Today, CGC is one of the largest privately held corporations in the United States.
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chickens are killed for consumption annually. Chickens raised for eggs are known as layers, while chickens raised for meat are called broilers.
Hy-Line International or Hy-Line is a multi-national genetics company that raises and sells commercial/industrial laying chickens. It is a subsidiary of the German EW Group. The firm has subsidiaries in multiple countries including Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom and has 60 distributors in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Poultry farming is a part of the United States's agricultural economy.
Godrej Agrovet Limited is an Indian company which operates in the animal feed and agribusiness sectors. Godrej Agrovet's chairman is Nadir Godrej. The company's subsidiary, Astec LifeSciences, manufactures agrochemicals.
Skylark Foods Limited is a subsidiary of Skylark Group, an Indian company that specialises in chicken and meat processing, and poultry products for poultry usage. It holds the same position in North India as Venky's holds in South India.
Dwarfism in chickens is an inherited condition found in chickens consisting of a significant delayed growth, resulting in adult individuals with a distinctive small size in comparison with normal specimens of the same breed or population.
Donald McQueen Shaver was a Canadian pioneer in the poultry industry, who founded a breeding company that achieved worldwide prominence. At its peak Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms was the world's largest, being one of only two "world class foundation breeding" companies in Canada. Shaver died in 2018 of age related causes.
The broiler industry is the process by which broiler chickens are reared and prepared for meat consumption. Worldwide, in 2005 production was 71,851,000 tonnes. From 1985 to 2005, the broiler industry grew by 158%.
Poultry farming in Kenya is a widespread occupation. It is mostly practiced on a small-scale, and predominantly for domestic consumption.
Erich Erber is an Austrian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Erber KG, later known as Biomin GmbH; the animal health and nutrition company specializes in feed additives and premixes. In 2020 Erich Erber sold Erber Group and founded SAN Group. It continues to be family-owned and operated.
The PHW Group is a German family business in the meat industry that operates internationally. Its core business is meat processing of poultry. It is the largest company of the poultry industry in Germany and the fourth-largest in Europe. The PHW Group is headquartered in Visbek-Rechterfeld in the Oldenburg Münsterland region, Germany.
The WIMEX Group is an internationally active German company in the meat and agricultural industry, based in Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt. With an annual capacity of 435.455 million hatching eggs, it is the largest producer of day-old chicks for chicken fattening in Europe and one of the world's largest suppliers of broiler chickens of the Cobb breed. Its revenue in 2021 was €295,158 million. Just under 50 percent of the company's shares are owned by the PHW Group.
Plukon Food Group is an internationally active corporate group in the meat industry. It is one of the largest processors of poultry meat in Europe.
Planasa is a Spanish agricultural company headquartered in Valtierra. It is a corporate group that operates within the agricultural and food sector in more than 27 countries worldwide.
