University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada May 30, 1997

That'll be some coop

Poultry Research Centre looks for partners in upgrading facilities

By Lee Elliott

Dr. Frank Robinson has a thing about chickens. "I have always liked chickens since I was a kid. It's very weird, but it's true." He says he had only 25 chickens when he was a kid on a Saskatchewan farm. "And here I am."

"Here," is the U of A Poultry Research Station, a joint project with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and the four provincial poultry boards: The Alberta Chicken Producers, Alberta Egg Producers, Alberta Hatching Egg Producers and the Alberta Turkey Growers Marketing Board. Representatives from all these groups gathered at the Station May 23 for the launch of a fund-raising campaign designed to take the Centre-and the poultry industry in the province-into the 21st Century.

"People are eating a lot more chicken at the expense of red meat," says Robinson. "They're becoming very health conscious and going for very low fat poultry products which means deboned chicken breasts." Current University poultry research has focused on production efficiency. "Our new department vision is to look at the food chain from production through to value added.What we need to do that is a processing facility that can be federally inspected," says Robinson.

Ian Morrison, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics, said the facility is already the only one of its kind in Canada. However, the industry is rapidly expanding. To keep ahead of institutions such as those in Arkansas, Alabama, Texas and Georgia in the "value added" future, he says, the University needs renovations and an expansion that will cost approximately $1.5 million. "What we need is a very clean lab with modest equipment so that we can collect complete data on each bird.

Research processing labs are unlike commercial plants: we do not use them every day nor do we use them for large numbers of birds: but we need such labs to do good research and to provide research facilities for our students."

Robinson, who spent the afternoon giving tours, said "All four feather boards are here plus the Lilydale board of directors so we're quite happy.We work a lot with industry.and we've asked their support for annual operating and always got it, but now we're asking for a one-time shot in the arm to really bring us up to speed.We talk to the poultry industries throughout North America, it's not just Alberta."

Plans include construction of a new multi-purpose teaching and research facility; a building for slaughter, evisceration, processing and post-processing evaluation of poultry; and renovations to include environmentally-controlled poultry chambers, upgraded pens and improved sanitation, air quality and storage capabilities.

For those having trouble envisioning the expanded Poultry Research Centre, Robinson and his children have built a replica from Lego, carefully following builders' plans.

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