BEACHBURG — The Renfrew County Kennys have joined a trend among dairy farmers who are selling some quota to diversify into chickens in expectation of easing their workload.

Rick Kenny and son Greg, 33, east of Pembroke, have just built a 400 ft. by 64 ft barn to house up to 35,000 meat birds. Their first shipment – 25,000 one-day-old chicks – arrive March 1.

The birds are sent to a Quebec processor after about 37 days. Their open house is Feb. 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the new barn just west of Beachburg.

The Kennys, who milk 40 Holsteins, built the air-tight, bio-secured free-roam chicken barn seven kilometres away from the dairy farm to complete a nutrient management plan, and say everything is automated from the amount and mixture of feed to ventilation and heating. If anything goes awry, the computerized monitoring system calls them at home.

They thought about making the move for several years and got advice from nearby dairy farmer Barry Gould, who completed his chicken barn last year. The Kennys were milking 92 cows in a tie-stall and sold quota to start the new venture.

They have two reasons for diversifying: they see an increase in consumer preference to chicken and away from red meats and they see the labour saving opportunity.

You have to check on the chickens twice a day, said Greg, noting that meat birds involve less labour than laying hens. Demand is also there, they say, noting that three Quebec processors came to them for their business.

They expect to run seven to 10 shipments of birds through the barn each year. In the grand scheme of things their operation is considered average in size for the industry. Manure management occurs between flocks. They pressure wash, then disinfect the barn.

A barn with 25,000 birds is slightly smaller than the average chicken farm in Ontario which has about 1,130 chicken farms. There are fewer producers but slightly more chicken farms (about 100 farmers own more than one farm) than there were in 1995, although production has increased significantly.

If you’re thinking of following the trend to meat chickens, here are some figures to consider based on the Kenny model:

1. Quota cost is $85 per unit. Each unit allows the farmer to produce 12.5 kg. of meat birds per year (about five birds).

2. Their cost to a Quebec hatchery for four-hour-old chicks: 60 cents per bird.

3. Revenue from Quebec processor: $1.50 per kilogram. Some farms are reporting bonuses paid from Quebec processors.

4. Let’s say you put 20,000 birds through the barn 10 times a year. Your initial cost for quota is about $3.4 million.

You pay $120,000 per year for 200,000 day-old chicks. Your gross revenue from a processor is $750,000 per year.

For net earnings and return on investment you’ll have to figure in your others costs, including loan repayment, quota, feed, power costs and labour.