In Search Of Better Tasting Chicken

In Search Of Better Tasting Chicken LIVESTOCK Poultry Slow chicken is a hot new trend with a growing number of companies jumping on board but Ariane Daguin has promoted it for nearly 40 years Daguin founded D’Artagnan in the early 1980’s to provide high-quality meat and poultry to New York City chefs Key to that was finding chicken that tasted like the chicken she had grown up eating in Gascony France Most commercial chickens are on feed for as little as 35 days before slaughter and fed mostly corn soybean meal and poultry meal by-products of poultry production slaughter and processing Daguin found the results tasteless She began looking for a slower-growing chicken fed a different diet “We wanted better and better chicken that was raised free-range and fed local grain and vegetables over a much longer time ” says Daguin “We started a breeding program with Brune Landaise a dual-purpose breed that would thrive on that diet ” Daguin largely relies on Amish and Mennonite farmers for both her breeding and production programs as she has from the start She organized co-ops to provide the feed and laid out standards of care including space and diet and forbidding the use of antibiotics or growth hormones in the free-ranging birds Unlike commercial chicken feed rations birds raised for Daguin are fed no animal by-products Her slow chicken was the first on the market to be certified by the USDA as free-range chicken She also maintains a full farm-to-table audit trail Today in addition to the Gallus brun breed that matures in 85 days her farmers also raise Rock Cornish broilers They’re grown for 54 days or longer They also thrive on Daguin’s ration of locally raised grain and vegetables While she started small Daguin has built a dedicated national customer base Her reputation for quality meat and poultry has earned her coverage in the top food and business magazines in the U S It’s also created a steady demand for sources to supply D’Artagnan with slow chicken “Today we sell about 500 of our 85-day plus broilers and about 30 000 of our 54-day broilers each week ” says Daguin “We’re constantly looking for new producers as we don’t want to stress a farmer to raise more than they have room for ” As the business has grown standards of care and diet have stayed constant The trucks that pick up birds for slaughter pick up vegetables from suppliers for their return trip delivering them to the same farms Federally inspected slaughterhouses are a major constraint for D’Artagnan as for others New farmers must be on a route between existing farms and a slaughterhouse Daguin has worked with the American Farm Bureau and others to promote more slaughterhouses She advises anyone considering direct marketing meat and poultry to first secure local slaughterhouse access and scheduling “We saw how fragile the livestock industry is when the large slaughterhouses closed during the pandemic ” says Daguin “The solution is a more direct connection between the breeder and the consumer ” In the case of slow chicken people need to be introduced to and recognize the value of higher-quality chicken While the bulk of consumers still favor cheap chicken interest in slow chicken is growing “There’s a lot of buzz and growth in demand for our 60-day chicken ” says Daguin “It’s a good medium-quality bird and not as expensive as our 100-day birds I sell a few of the 100-day birds on our website but most go to a list of 10 to 12 top chefs ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup D’Artagnan 600 Green Lane Union N J 07083 ph 877-858-0099; milady@dartagnan; www dartagnan com

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