In 1957 the average growth period for an eating chicken to reach slaughter weight was 63 days.
On non-industrial farms, it takes turkeys 24 weeks to arrive at slaughter weight, about 15 pounds for a hen and 24 pounds for a tom.
The projections are encouraging: a live slaughter weight of 1,250, a carcass weight of 787 pounds and a grade at the upper end of choice, making him eligible to be sold at a premium as Certified Angus Beef.
A standard fresh chicken costs around £4.50 today; a free range one will be sold for a premium and an organic one reared to slaughter weight over 12 rather than six weeks will cost more than twice that.
Standard chickens are raised in large-scale industrial farms where as many as 40,000 birds may be reared at a time in "crops" that take around 42 days to reach slaughter weight.
Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and the modern meat industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef calf's allotted time on earth.
I asked David Pimentel, a Cornell ecologist who specializes in agriculture and energy, if it might be possible to calculate precisely how much oil it will take to grow my steer to slaughter weight.
Slaughter weight endpoint was at approximately 500 kg.
There were no significant differences to live weight, ADG, ADFI and slaughter weight among the groups.
No evidence was found that increasing slaughter weight detracts from carcass characteristics or meat quality.
Vitamin E – selenium supplementation increased slaughter weight, dressing percentage, and pHu.
