Webinar with Michelle McKenzie: Integrating Pastured Poultry & Vegetable Production

Integrating Pastured Poultry & Vegetable Production

Speaker

Michelle McKenzie has been farming for 15 years, first as a crew member, then in various leadership roles. Now she is the head manager of Bellair Farm, Charlottesville’s largest and most flexible CSA, serving 660 households as well as retail and wholesale clients. Between the 23-acre vegetable operation, the multi-species at-scale livestock enterprises, and a complex distribution model, there’s always a challenge around every corner. Always ambitious, Michelle was originally drawn to Bellair for connection to the land and the outdoors. Now, she stays because of its scale and opportunity to make a big impact for consumers and career agriculturalists alike. Avid birder, ecologist, and outdoor adventurer, her greatest pride is the conversion of Bellair’s former corn-and-soy cropland into incredible grassland ecosystems that integrate conservation and ecology seamlessly with agricultural production.

We will discuss the nuts and bolts of managing large-scale laying flocks, the role of cover and forage crops in the health of your poultry, and the benefits of stacking poultry systems with vegetable production. There will be an overview of food safety guidelines and the practical lived experience of the do’s and don’ts of poultry. We will give an overview of the financials of poultry at Bellair. This session is appropriate for every type of producer, whether a seasoned vegetable farm interested in poultry, an existing multi-enterprise farm, or a 1st-year farmer getting started raising birds. Come learn from Bellair Farms’ decade of successes and mistakes in combining these two enterprises.