At Inghams, one of the flagship initiatives in our 2030 Sustainability Leadership Roadmap is to advance animal welfare through innovation and research and continue to strive for industry leadership to ensure the optimal health and welfare of the animals in our care.
In 2023, two of our farms participated in a research project to learn more about what type of range environment best supports our animal’s welfare.
This research project was led by Dr Peta Taylor (University of Melbourne), Dr Carolyn de Koning and Jessica Jolley (South Australian Research and Development Institute) and Jean-Loup Rault (University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna), who monitored the behaviour of free-range chickens at our farms in Queensland and South Australia. The range area for each of the 14 commercial flocks of chickens was divided into four sections, each with a different outdoor shade structure arrangement to observe and determine which arrangement was preferred by the birds.
The first section provided no structures on this area of the range, while the second provided six structures in one line, four metres from the shed. The third section had structures arranged into two vertical lines of three beginning roughly one and a half metres from the shed, with two metres in between each structure. The final section also began roughly one and a half metres from the shed with equal distance between each structure, with the structures arranged in two horizontal lines of three.
Due to the behaviours exhibited by the chickens throughout this research project, such as the duration of their visits to the shade structures, the results indicated that there was a preference for range areas with resources evenly spread in vertical or horizontal orientations.
Supporting research that furthers the industry’s understanding of chicken welfare allows us to identify practices that improve the health and wellbeing of our animals.
Inghams has existing shade structures in place that are evenly spread across our free range farms that comply with RSPCA Approved (in Australia) and SPCA Certified certification (in NZ) requirements to support animal welfare, and will also take this research into consideration when new structures are installed.
This research project was funded by the AgriFutures Australia Chicken Meat Program to support the Australian chicken meat industry through investing in research, development and extension which will improve the industry’s sustainability, productivity and viability. Participating in and supporting industry research such as this allows for the industry’s understanding of chicken welfare to increase, maximising our ability to identify practices that can benefit the health and wellbeing of animals within our care.
Inghams is committed to being Always Good, building on our long-standing and solid reputation for sustainable operations and animal welfare standards. We are proud that all our barn-raised and free-range broiler* farming facilities in Australia are certified by the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme. Inghams is also proud to be the first and only poultry producer in New Zealand to have all of its barn-raised and free-range broiler farms SPCA Certified.
Click here to learn more about our 2030 Sustainability Leadership Roadmap
Want to join a team that nurtures its animals? Click here for roles that span our senior leadership, maintenance, hatcheries, farming and more
* Broiler farms nurture our animals bred for meat production.
