Less Info

Gathering eggs from mobile chicken houses on an organic Amish family farm in Lancaster County PA. The coops are moved daily to provide fresh pasture for the birds. There are 600 birds in each of the four coops, which each need a ton of food every 12 days. The feed is all grain, primarily organic corn with no soy or GMO products. The mobile coops cost approx. $30k, and include a solar panel to power the automatic feeding system. A dog is kept on site to protect from foxes and eagles.

Most of the Amish farms are small conventional dairy operations with approx. 50 milking cows, and 50 tillable acres. They have similar agricultural output per acre compared to large commercial dairies, but with more family labor instead of machinery, which is minimized for religious reasons. Amish farming methods are a hybrid of 19th Century animal-powered techniques mixed with a few modern inputs.

Lancaster County PA holds the distinction of being the most productive non-irrigated farming county in the United States. The hens are a cross between Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorn, and eggs are sold by WholeFoods in Eastern PA.

Filename
STNMTZ_20210515_681-2.tif
Copyright
©2021 George Steinmetz
Image Size
8192x5464 / 128.1MB
www.georgesteinmetz.com
Contained in galleries
Feed the Planet
Gathering eggs from mobile chicken houses on an organic Amish family farm in Lancaster County PA. The coops are moved daily to provide fresh pasture for the birds. There are 600 birds in each of the four coops, which each need a ton of food every 12 days. The feed is all grain, primarily organic corn with no soy or GMO products. The mobile coops cost approx. $30k, and include a solar panel to power the automatic feeding system. A dog is kept on site to protect from foxes and eagles.<br /> <br /> Most of the Amish farms are small conventional dairy operations with approx. 50 milking cows, and 50 tillable acres. They have similar agricultural output per acre compared to large commercial dairies, but with more family labor instead of machinery, which is minimized for religious reasons. Amish farming methods are a hybrid of 19th Century animal-powered techniques mixed with a few modern inputs. <br /> <br /> Lancaster County PA holds the distinction of being the most productive non-irrigated farming county in the United States. The hens are a cross between Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorn, and eggs are sold by WholeFoods in Eastern PA.

All images ©George Steinmetz. Please contact us for usage.