Poultry Improvement Project

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Poultry Improvement Project

• Conformation and Fleshing

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Conformation is Important

• Conformation sounds like something really
  confusing.
• However, many points (300) are given for
  conformation when the birds are judged.
• Judging conformation of poultry is very similar
  to judging conformation in any other species.

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• Unlike the story which comes out and tells you
  what you need to write, conformation is much more
  difficult.
• Conformation can be hard to see because the
  chickens are covered with feathers.
• It is also difficult if you do not know what you
  are looking for.

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Conformation

• Body conformation of a broiler refers to the
  birds structure (the shape and size of the body
  parts relative to each other).
• A birds body conformation can be evaluated
  objectively because the structural dimensions can
  be measured and recorded, similarly as for the
  height and waist measurements of a human body.

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Measurements

• Evaluating a broilers body conformation requires
  measuring the
• width across the shoulders
• length of back
• depth of body
• length of keel
• spring of ribs
• width across hips

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Body Length

• Length should be proportionately larger than the
  body width.
• Width across the shoulders (from wing to wing)
  should be 75 of the length of the back.
• The length (from the base of neck to the base of
  thee tail) should be 1.5 times greater than the
  width across the shoulders.

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Depth of Body

• Should equal or exceed the width across the
  shoulders, at both the front and rear of the keel
  bone.
• This will make the keel parallel to the back.
• The length of the keel should be equal to or
  greater than the width across the shoulders.

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• Length of Muscling
• determined by the length of the keel
• the length should extend the full distance along
  the keel bone.
• Be approximately 1.5 times greater than the width
  of muscling

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• Depth of muscling
• Determined by the depth of the body.
• Depth of muscling should be equal or greater than
  the width of muscling.
• The keel bone should also run parallel to the
  backbone.
• Width of muscling(carry of muscle)
• Determined by the width of breast between the
  points of wing attachment.
• Carry of muscling is determined by how well the
  breast meat width carries from the front (at the
  point of the wing attachment) to the rear (at the
  end of the keel bone).

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Spring of Ribs

• Width across the back between the hips and wings.
• This should equal the width across the shoulders.
• The width across hips should exceed the width
  across the shoulders.

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Breast Meat Quantity

• Closely related to body conformation.
• Breast meat quantity on broiler birds refers to
  the amount of muscling in the breast area(the
  choice cut in the poultry product market).
• It can be measured objectively.

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Measuring the Breast Meat

• What to measure?
• Length of muscling
• Depth of muscling
• Width of muscling
• Carry of muscling
• All estimates are done by touching the birds with
  your hands.

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Fleshing

• Described as Excellent, Very Good, Good, and
  Poor.
• Determined by looking and feeling the meat on the
  breast bone, thighs, and drumstick.