Online Poultry Course

What goes through your mind when someone mentions the word poultry? Maybe you think of a small flock of chickens scratching in a backyard, someone collecting eggs by hand, or even Foghorn Leghorn. Whatever your needs, this course has been designed for both the hobbyist and professional production farmer.

Today's poultry industry is a large scale and highly advanced entity with numerous job opportunities for well trained and motivated young men and women who wish to achieve a high level of career advancement. Can you visualize yourself as a broiler processing plant manager, a flock service technician, a quality control manager, a feed-mill manager, a hatchery manager, a poultry veterinarian, a nutritionist, an agricultural engineer, a geneticist, a marketing specialist or perhaps you are just interested in keeping a small backyard flock?

Guess what...these are just a small handful of positions available for college educated individuals with a desire to specialise in poultry regardless of the size. Can you see your future in poultry?

This course has been created to provide information on the poultry industry and to help you learn more about how you can pursue your future in a dynamic, ever-changing, technologically advanced industry with tremendous opportunities for trained people. So sit back and enjoy this window into your future!

1. Introduction, Terminology and Breeds

• History of Poultry
• Terminology
• Contract Growing
• Regulations
• Management Factors
• Small Scale Production
• Breeds
• Classifying Fowls (Egg Laying Breeds, Meat or Table Birds, Dual Purpose Breeds)
• Cross Breed Poultry
• Sex Linkage
• Brooders
• Skeletal System
• Poultry Husbandry (Stock Selection, Feeding, Watering, Housing, Health)
• Turkeys
• Geese
• Ducks

2. Poultry Nutrition

• Digestive System (Gullet, Crop, Proventriculus, Gizzard, Intestine, Caecum, etc)
• Nutrient Sources (Carbohydrate, Protein, Minerals etc)
• Rationing
• Palatability
• The End Product
• Modern Feed Requirements
• Phase Feeding
• Limited Feeding
• Consumption Feeding

3. Diseases

• Avoiding Stress

• Viral diseases

• Bacterial diseases

• Mycoplasmosis, fungal and protozoan disease

• Non-infectious diseases

4. Layers

• Extensive (free-range) System
• Semi-Intensive System
• Intensive Systems
• Housing
• Deep Litter System
• Feeders
• Battery Units
• Feeding the Laying Hen
• Replacing the Flock

5. Broilers

• Caponising
• Brooding Period
• Feeding Broilers (Starter Period, Finisher Period)
• Housing
• Hygeine and Health

6. Incubation

• The natural method (using broody hens)
• The artificial method (using incubators)
• Selecting Eggs
• Storing Hatching Eggs
• Turning Eggs
• Managing a Incubator (Temperature, Humidity, Testing, Hatching)
• Reasons for Poor Hatchability

7. Brooding

• Heating
• The canopy brooder
• The infra-red lamp
• The battery brooder
• The haybox brooder
• Feeders
• Drinkers
• Floor Space
• Rearing
• Problems during rearing

8. Record Keeping, economics and Marketing

• Growth Records
• Egg Production records
• Small Scale Business
• Compatible Ventures (Manure, etc)
• Preparing a Farm Business plan
• Finance3
• Land Management
• Analyzing the Market place
• Developing a Marketing Plan

DURATION: 100 hours

AIMS

• Select appropriate poultry breeds for use in different production situations.
• Explain the techniques used in the management of condition, including both feeding, and pest and disease control, of poultry.
• Explain the management of poultry as layers.
• Explain the procedures for the management of poultry as broilers.
• Explain the techniques used in the management of poultry incubation.
• Explain the management of brooding poultry.
• Develop management strategies for a poultry business.

For more information on this course, please request your free course information pack.