In April 2019, Shocklee saw a social media post from the ag manager at Cat ® dealer Boyd Cat (formerly known as Whayne Supply).
![solar panels for poultry farm solar panels for poultry farm](https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/solar-panels-jeff-henderson-.jpg)
And four years ago, Buck Creek Farm saw a 42 percent increase to its utility bill when several large industrial users dropped off the local power grid. The farm’s energy bill is its largest expense, representing about 50 percent of total operating costs. So, it’s very critical to have a solid, dependable electrical supply on the farm.” “We have fans running 24/7 to keep ventilation adequate. “With poultry being in a closed, confined building, we have no room for mechanical breakdown as far as electrical energy,” he says. If we have an extremely hot, humid spell, and if chickens are close to market age, it becomes more difficult to maintain their comfort. “Essentially, we have a cooling system to keep the chickens cool in hot weather, and, of course, we have a heater to keep them warm in the cold weather,” Shocklee says. There are temperature standards to maintain during the growing cycle, and the poultry buildings are climate controlled. There are approximately 25,000 chickens in each of the 20,000-square-foot poultry houses, which measure 500 feet long.Īs Shocklee’s integrator, the food company provides the chicks and the feed, while he provides the buildings, labor, water and electricity to heat and cool the low-slung poultry houses.īuck Creek Farm follows a set protocol to raise the chickens. Five times a year, he is provided with a flock of chicks, which take anywhere from 48 to 51 days to raise. Shocklee is a contract farmer for a national food company, raising nearly 500,000 chickens annually at his facility 20 minutes south of Owensboro, Ky.
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Ten years later, he added two more of the structures.
![solar panels for poultry farm solar panels for poultry farm](https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/ext/resources/2019/6/TysonSolarPanels_Lead.jpg)
and started working it full-time after he decided to raise chickens-constructing two poultry barns at the end of 1996. Five years later, he purchased the rest of the farm in Livermore, Ky. Farming has run in Roger Shocklee’s family since the late 1800s, when his great grandfather worked the land in western Kentucky.Īs a fourth-generation farmer, Shocklee bought the original six acres from his grandfather in 1991 while continuing to work at his day job in the mining industry.