There’s more than one way to stay on the farm.
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For Cameron Ward and his business partner Angus Shephard, the secret to beating tough times on the land could lie with the Chinese silkie chicken.
The silkie is best known as the pom-pom headed small breed of poultry most often seen at shows and country pet parades.
But this docile bird is also prized by the Asian market for its mulberry-coloured skin and flavour.
Mr Ward and Mr Shephard, who operate Great Northern Poultry, have been breeding and selling silkie chickens from a Manilla property to the Asian market in Sydney for some years.
But Mr Ward has now submitted a “gateway application” to Gunnedah Shire Council to expand with a 20,000 poultry operation at Kelvin.
Mr Ward is seeking approval for Chinese silkie chickens to be bred at the Manilla site, but moved to the Gunnedah site at two days old to be raised in five sheds.
“At 10 weeks of age, the batch of chickens will be delivered to Game Farm processors in Galston just north of Sydney for slaughter, processing and displatch into the market place,” the application states.
“There is high demand for this product in the Asian food markets.”
The site will raise up to 20,000 birds at one time, with fortnightly deliveries of the live chickens to the abattoir.
Mr Ward said yesterday the operation was “tiny” in comparison with others in the area, but instead of massive sheds of white chooks, the Kelvin operation will include silkies of every colour.
He said the aim was to receive approval as an RSPCA-approved farming scheme.
Mr Ward said his business partner Mr Shephard came up with the idea as an alternative to more traditional farming.
“It’s really hard to get back on the land,” Mr Ward said.
“You can’t borrow a heap of money to buy a farm.”
He said Mr Shephard had worked through the difficulties of breeding silkies as opposed to traditional meat or egg chickens.
“Angus has done all the hard work,” Mr Ward said.
“It’s not an easy bird to manage. It’s not usually bred for commercial production and he is working out the kinks with them.
“He’s done the hard yards.”
Mr Ward said he was aware of one other silkie farm supplying the Asian market in Sydney and another farm that supplied the Melbourne market, but silkie farming was still very much a niche market.
The birds are sold on by the abattoir.
“The reason they are desirable is that the chemical in them that makes their skin black is quite good for the immune system,” Mr Ward said.
“They are used for the elderly and the sick in soups and broths.”
Great Northern Poultry’s learning curve in selling the silkies has taken them on a journey quite different to traditional poultry farmers.
Silkies have five toes instead of the usual four, and until recently, the birds were sold to consumers with the feet still attached.
The birds are a lot smaller than a regular chook, and Great Northern Poultry is paid per bird instead of per weight.
Mr Ward said he hoped the operation would be approved and under construction by Christmas.
But silkies are unlikely to be on the Ward family’s Christmas menu.
What do they taste like?
“They taste like chicken,” Mr Ward said.
“But with a bit of a stronger flavour.”
Mr Ward said while he was happy to make a living from raising and selling the birds, they were an acquired taste.