 Hey everybody, I'm Blair Rossick and I'm a 2020-2021 state for HM bastard from Coffee County. And today I'll be interviewing my dad, Jamie Rossick, who's a poultry farmer here in Coffee County. So, how many chicken houses are on your farm? We currently have eight roller houses on our farm and then I helped oversee my brother's farm also. He has a total of ten houses. And how many chickens can each of those houses hold? Well, we'll just use my farm for reference. Those eight houses, each household is 37,000 birds, which is a total of 296,000 birds per flock. We get six flocks per year. That's a total of 1,776,000 birds in one year. That's a lot of birds. So what does a typical day look like for you on the farm? Typical day starts out with checking inventory of feed, water meter recordings from the day before, see how much water was drank, resetting any alarms for that day, going through daily maintenance, everyday stuff of picking up dead mortality out of the house. We usually start around seven o'clock in the morning and we'll be through with picking up birds usually by two o'clock in the afternoon and then it's grass cutting and everything else the rest of the day. So how many workers do you employ on your farm? I have one full time and two part time, plus myself. And you said you get six batches each year, correct? That is correct. And what company do you grow for? I currently grow for Wayne Farms Enterprise. And does Wayne Farms supply for any restaurants? The main restaurants that this plant fills contracts far is the biggest one is Chick-fil-A. Wendy's Outback Steakhouse is the main ones, but Chick-fil-A is probably 75% of the breast meat that comes out of the Enterprise complex goes to Chick-fil-A. So when we go eat Chick-fil-A we could be eating your birds? Very possible. What type of feed do you use on your farm? We use, have an antibiotic free, which is RWA2, which stands for Raised Without Antibiotics. There's currently four different feeds that Wayne Farms feeds, but for our complex we use the RWA2. Okay, and what is the average weight of a finished bird when they go head off to the processing plant? Average weight, our target weight is 475. That's usually achieved within 38 to 40 days. That's usually the length that we keep them. And, you know, you may be over. You may push 5,000, which if you do, that's just that much better. You get paid by weight, so the higher you weight, the more money you make. That's an interesting fact. And what is the average cost of your house? One house, rough, that's including dirt work, built in the pad, the house, the equipment, the whale that supplies that house, you're roughly somewhere right around $400,000 per house. Gotcha. And have you ever won any awards for your farming? We have. In 2016, we were awarded the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association's Farm Family of the Year. And then also in 2016, we were awarded the Coffee County Farm City Poultry Farmer of the year. That's great. Are there any associations or programs to help poultry farmers? Yes, Alabama Poultry and Egg Association currently has, you know, different chapters throughout the state. We are members here of the Wiregrass, Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, which I am the current president of that Wiregrass Association. That's so amazing that there is organizations out there to help poultry farmers. And what type of equipment do you use in poultry farming? Well, the house equipment, I have hired hand controllers. We have chore time feed lines, lube and drinkers, chore time fans, chore time heaters, and then also you have, that's just the equipment for in the house and then for your clean-out equipment, which we have a clean-out poultry house clean-out business. We have 18-wheelers that have belt trailers hooked to those. We clean the houses out. You drag it to the front using tractors with hydraulic blades, lift-type blades. Then we have telehandlers that we use to scoop the litter out of the house, put it on the trailer, and then transport it to the field to be used for fertilizer. That's great. How it can be used for all things. And how long did it take you to build your eight houses? I built the first ones in 2008. Then we built two more in 2013 and then two more in 2015. And I know the birds like to be kept at certain temperatures. So what temperatures do you keep the birds on in the different seasons? When the birds arrive from the hatchery, you have to maintain 90 degrees for three days, and then temperature starts dropping an average of roughly four degrees per week. So then at day 38 to 40, when you're selling those birds, you're down to around 66 to 68 degrees, depending on the time of the year. Just like right now, we would try to achieve 66 degrees in the summertime at 40 days. Sounds like they like to be kept warm for a little while. Did you have any previous experience in poultry farming before you actually got started yourself in it? Yes, my daddy built three houses in 1982. My brother added two houses in 1990. And then I went to Auburn University and obtained a degree in poultry science. I graduated Auburn in 1997. I started to work with Wayne Farms as a field rep and worked for them for 15 years, during which time I built the first four houses. And then ultimately resigned and come home to be a full-time farmer. So your major in college was poultry science? Yes. What would you say is the best thing about your job? Basically being my own boss, being able to, you know, you making your decisions on a daily basis. You get to see the end result of your hard work that you work for every day, not only in just poultry farming, but in row crop farming in general or cattle farming, watching the calves grow, watching their crops grow, it's just fulfilling to see the small things that you plant or start with end up in a marketable agricultural product. So you do a little bit of it all. You have chicken houses, you have cattle and farm row crops. Yes. We have roughly 150 head of mama cows. And then we have this year we planted almost 1400 acres of peanuts right at 200 acres of cotton, which we flip flop this year because of the market on cotton was not profitable at the time of planting. So we decided to go peanuts this year. And so far, hopefully crops look good and I think we're gonna have a bountiful, plentiful crop and harvest. Well, I hope that happens. But last question, what advice would you give youth interested in your job? That's a tough question, but, you know, work hard, strive to do your best every day. And you know, don't ever, don't ever give up on the dream. Farming is a hard life, it's, but it's a fulfilling life. It's enjoyable to be able to, like I said a while ago, get up every morning and go to work and enjoy something that you do, but just, you know, live the dream and reach for those goals. Great. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be on an interview with me. I enjoy talking to you so much. Thank you. You're very welcome.