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barns, washing barns, setting up barns and
moving out birds. Equipment breaks down;
supplies run out and before you know it there
are not enough hours in the day to get all the
work done. As production barns become empty
at the end of the season we thoroughly go
through each barn making needed repairs that
couldn’t be done during production.
Preventative
maintenance is a
must. We test each
barns ventilation
system prior to
chicks arriving. All
heaters are taken
down, inspected
then cleaned out.
Fan belts are all
replaced and our
feed systems are
inspected by a hired
professional.
During the season
we clean the corners
of the feed systems out between every flock; all
brooders are taken apart and blown out. As
breakdowns occur, we repair immediately to
prevent a small repair from turning into something
that could possibly shut production down.
On the same lines of preventative maintenance,
having an inventory of parts and supplies will
save you time and headaches as the season
progresses. This season I began ordering
supplies to carry me through the year. On a
weekly basis I inventory all products and if we
are starting to run low I have time to place an
order before I absolutely need them.
Planning and preparation is the start to effective
brooder management. Knowing your staffs
strengths and weaknesses will help when
organizing your day to day tasks. And above
all, communication amongst your staff. A staff
that communicates well works well together.
Effective Brooder Management
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Jim Adamson’s Legacy
Continued from page 1
2
800.345.8348 ¥
www.pheasant.com
Left to Right: Troy Cisewski - Brooder Manager, Prescott Lawrence, Derrick
Golz, Nicholas Dembicky and Jesse Holmgren, Assistant Brooder Manager.
Jim experimented with the use of lights to
extend the number of hours of daylight on our
pheasant breeder flocks. I can remember as a
young boy a 20+ acre field of breeding
pheasants lit up like a baseball diamond at
night, by strings of huge 1500 watt
incandescent bulbs. Because of the
progressive use of lights, our farm produced
lots of chicks in April and created a market for
early hatched chicks. I can remember it
snowing when the bulbs were on and Jim
rushing to turn off the lights, because as the
snowflakes hit the bulbs many of the bulbs
were breaking.
Dot’s main job was working in the hatchery.
Dot washed and set (put the eggs into trays)
the majority of the eggs that came to our
hatchery. Dot also oversaw the sexing of the
chicks (separating the hens from the cocks) as
our farm developed a market for sexed cocks
and a market for sexed hens. Jim and Dot
lived immediately next to the hatchery – and
between March and July – you would be far
more likely to find Dot if you went and looked
in the hatchery first.
I grew up having a good relationship with my
dad, and not taking anything away from that –
Jim was a second father to me. Jim taught me
how to work. Every morning at 6:40 am Jim
came out of his house and got into the pickup
parked outside and drove the one mile south to
the farm. When I was a boy I knew I had to be
in the back of that pickup truck before 6:40 am
or I would miss my ride. Once we got to the
farm, Jim always had a plan of who was to do
what job. Everything was organized and laid
out. It wasn’t like I was afraid of Jim, but I
deeply did not want to disappoint him.
Every building and brooder house either had a
name or a number. Brooder houses were
called quonset houses, or small houses, middle
houses, or straw houses, or hex houses – we
even had a few school houses. There was the
cracker room (where the corn cracking
machine resided) or the shop or the middle
room (because it was in the middle between
the shop and the cracker room).
I grew up with things being organized – what
day to set the eggs into the incubator, what day
was the hatch, when to move birds to the pens
etc. etc. It was all laid out, when to plant,
when to harvest, everything was planned. Jim
kept track of it all.
Jim did so many different things – I’ll try to
relate as many as I can here. He farmed,
raising corn and soybeans – and he planted
those crops and we had a combine to harvest
the grain. He dried the corn in big bins with
stirring machines. We had a soybean roasting
machine and Jim ran that and then used a
hammer mill to grind all of our feed. Jim
baled the straw from the soybean crop to use
for bedding for our chicks. Jim ran a small
processing plant here on the farm where he ran
a crew that killed and eviscerated pheasants to
be sold as dressed pheasants. Jim delivered
pheasant chicks and adult pheasants to our
customers. Jim was our farm’s electrician,
plumber and mechanic. He plowed the snow
and mowed the grass. Jim oversaw all the day
to day aspects of the farm.
Jim and Dot had four daughters (Donna,
Linda, Vicki and Pat) who grew up working on
the farm. Unfortunately in the past few years
both Jim and Dot have passed away. I can’t
say nearly enough about how vitally important
Jim and Dot were to laying the foundation to
get our farm to where it is today.
I can remember as a young
boy a 20+ acre field of
breeding pheasants lit up like a
baseball diamond at night, by
strings of huge 1500 watt
incandescent bulbs.
Bill MacFarlane