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Tracking Our Progress

See the details in our Company Stewardship Report.

We Keep Looking Forward

Treating animals with respect means going beyond the minimum to keep animals healthy and to produce safe food. We view animal care as a journey of continuous improvement, evolving with advancements in animal husbandry and behavior, consumer questions and public concerns. This responsibility stretches across all of our raising programs and is shared by the farm families we trust to raise animals for us.

Our programs are designed so that we can raise animals in a reduced-stress environment where we don’t need to rely on human or animal antibiotics to keep them healthy, and we never use drugs for growth promotion or artificial growth promoters.

 

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10 New Animal Care Initiatives For 2024

As part of its commitment to continuous improvement in animal care and welfare, Perdue Farms announced the following 10 new animal care initiatives for 2024.

  • 1.  EXPLORE ENRICHMENTS AS ADDITIONAL SQUARE FOOTAGE IN EXISTING POULTRY HOUSE Identify third-party academic institution to help study and document use of elevated enrichments.
  • 2.  TRANSITION CHICKEN’S HOUSE EXTENSIVE ENRICHMENT PROJECT FROM RESEARCH FARM TO TWO COMMERCIAL POULTRY FARMS Build super-enriched farms and study benefits and challenges.
  • 3.   LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) PHASE 2. As a follow-up to last year’s assessment of chickens raising for “Better Chicken Commitment”, conduct LCA comparison of no-antibiotics-ever programs with varying bird sizes.
  • 4.  50% OF CHICKEN HOUSES THAT RAISE OUR CHICKENS HAVE WINDOWS BUT HOUSE MANAGEMENT CAN DIFFER Work to standardize the use of windows and determine if a study is needed to optimize their use.
  • 5.  WITH LITTER (CHICKEN HOUSE FLOORING MATERIAL) MANAGEMENT PARAMOUNT TO FLOCK HEALTH AND WELFARE, STANDARDIZE METHOD TO DESCRIBE LITTER CONDITION Write and implement standardized litter scoring method for all locations. Determine if a study is needed to optimize their use.
  • 6.  OUR CHICK LIVEABILITY IS BETTER THAN INDUSTRY AVERAGE.ANALYZE DATA TO IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT. Identify cause of flocks with below normal chick starts and determine if process improvement opportunities exist to enhance starts.
  • 7.  OUR OVERALL LIVEABILITY IS BETTER THAN INDUSTRY AVERAGE. ANALYZE DATA TO IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT. The report would be a discussion of those issues that the biggest challenge(s).
  • 8.  WITH MACHINE CATCHING TECHNIQUES EVOLVING IN RECENT YEARS, EXPLORE THE BEST WAYS TO DO THIS AND IDENTIFY HOW WE HOLD OURSELVES ACCOUNTABLE TO FOLLOW THEM. Identify and document best practices that allows an auditor to check compliance.
  • 9.  ON-FARM HATCH HAS SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL WELFARE BENEFITS. EXPAND THIS PROJECT INTO COMMERCIAL CHICKEN HOUSES TO DETERMINE VALUE FOR ALL SEASONS. Place minimum of one flock a week each season in different bird size programs and report on benefits and challenges.
  • 10. HAVING RUN AND AUDITED OUR BROILER BREEDER WELFARE PROGRAM FOR SEVERAL YEARS, INVITE A THIRD PARTY TO AUDIT PROGRAM COMPLIANCE. Engage USDA, AMS to audit our compliance. We find them to be one of the strictest and consistent auditing programs.

100%of chickens, turkeys, hogs, cows and sheep are raised under no-antibiotics-ever protocols

100%of hog, cattle and lamb production are raised under third-party verified humane animal care

100%of animals are raised under documented responsible care protocols

100%of animals are
pre-harvest stunned

100%of raised turkeys and hogs are controlled atmosphere stunned

100%of farmers and associates handling live animals receive welfare training

55%of poultry houses have windows

37%of poultry have
enrichments

27%of poultry have
outdoor access

0growth-promoting
drugs

FREEToll-Free hotline number to report welfare violations

USDAProcess Verified Programs for
all poultry

Avoidance Of Close Confinement*

Perdue Farms is committed to the avoidance of confinement through all species. As of July 2022:

  • 100% of chickens are raised confinement free
  • 100% of turkeys are raised confinement free
  • 100% of lambs are raised confinement free and ranch-finished
  • 96% of beef cattle are raised confinement free and void of commercial feed lots
  • 62% of hogs are raised confinement free
  • 27% of poultry raised free range
  • 0% of milk and eggs used in ingredients are not confinement free; these ingredients only make up .05% of our total volum

Environmental Enrichment*

At Perdue Farms, we recognize that providing animals with appropriate, species-specific environmental enrichments can improve their living conditions and help encourage their natural behaviors. As of July 2022:

  • 100% of lambs are raised on pasture
  • 96% of beef cattle have enrichments, such as shade with dirt, corn cobs, stalks and other natural materials, sprinklers in warm weather; brush out in pasture for scratching posts; hedge rows, stacks of round bales and other wind breakers.
  • 62% of pigs have access to enrichments allowing the animals to exhibit natural behaviors. Commonly used enrichments include deep bedding (typically corn cobs, stalks and straw); grass, brush, wallows and trees when outdoors; hay or straw bales; and sprinklers when hot. 
  • 37% of chickens have enrichments, such as boxes, perches, platforms and pecking objects with natural light and outdoor access.
  • 0% of Perdue’s turkeys have enrichments
  • 0% of laying hens and dairy cows have enrichments; however, these proteins represent just .06% of the company’s overall business.

Avoidance Of Routine Activities*

Perdue Farms is committed to the routine avoidance of activities such as tail docking of pigs and cows, debeaking of chickens and toenail conditioning of turkeys. As of July 2022:

  • 100% of lambs are free from mulesing
  • 60% of dairy cows are free from tail docking
  • 57% of pigs are free from teeth clipping
  • 29% of pigs are free from tail docking
  • 0% of chickens are beak conditioned
  • 0% of turkeys are toenail conditioned
  • 0% of beef cows are tail docked

Stunning*

Our objective is to ensure that all animal species, including chicken, turkey, pork, beef, dairy cows, and lamb, are rendered insensible prior to being harvested. As of July 2022:

  • 99.2% of turkeys are rendered insensible prior to being harvested using controlled atmosphere stunning.
  • 100% of chickens, beef and lambs are rendered insensible prior to being harvested.
  • 100% of dairy cows and laying hens are rendered insensible prior to harvest by industry standards. They represent .06 percent of Perdue Farms’ total pounds across all brands, products and species.
  • 9% of our chickens are rendered insensible using controlled atmosphere stunning.

Transportation*

Travel times for all poultry and livestock are kept to a minimum and our goal is to not exceed eight hours. As of July 2022:

  • 71% of all species raised and sourced are traveling 8 hours or less
    • 90% of all lambs raised and source are traveling 8 hours or less
    • 88% of all cattle raised and sourced are traveling 8 hours or less
    • 75% of all chickens raised and sourced are traveling 8 hours or less
    • 57% of all pigs raised and sourced are traveling 8 hours or less
    • 30% of all turkeys raised and sourced are traveling 8 hours or less

Antibiotics*

  • 96.2% of all animals we raise are source for our portfolio of brands are no antibiotics ever.

Slowing Growth Potential in Chickens

  • 9.5% of chickens raised and sourced have an average of <55g per day gain over their growth cycle.

Welfare Outcome Goal

Our beef, lamb and pork programs are incorporating additional welfare outcome measurements, including a commitment to reduce lameness. Baselines, targeted improvements, and reporting will be established in the coming year.

 

*All species raised and sourced for Perdue Farms brands.

 

Openness & Transparency

As part of our pledge "to be transparent in our programs, goal and progresses," we committed to share key animal care metrics, openly criticize ourselves when appropriate, and honestly and respectfully answer those who constructively criticize us.

Audit ResultsPoultry Care Incident Report

Perdue Stewardship Updates

Farm Open Houses

As part of our commitment to transparency, we routinely invite people to tour our farms and plants. We encourage our farmers to be open to visitors within the constraints of biosecurity and business needs. Over the course of a year, a range of stakeholders, including retail and food service customers, media, advocacy groups, community members, students, and government representatives, visit our facilities. We track the number of tours by audience and have a goal to conduct 100 tours a year. We conducted 117 tours in 2023.

Social Media: Perdue Farms Farmer Advocates Open Up

Perdue Farms is partnering with social media active farmers to help increase their visibility and share their stories with more people. Five Perdue Farms family farmers — Kenny Young (@KennyYoung K T Young Farm), Laura Landis (@WorthTheWaitFarm), Val Nasir (@ followvalsflock), Tara Green (@greengatefar-mers_wife) and Bobbi Jo Webber(@Webber-FamilyFarm) — are creating social media content including educational pieces about raising chickens as well as stories about their history, farms, families and animals. They are passionate about farming, rais-ing animals thoughtfully and always going the extra mile to produce a better tasting product, and enjoy educating their followers on social media about their work and what it takes to feed America.

By using the hashtags #PerdueProud and #PerdueFarms_FarmerAdvocate, their posts are shared across Perdue’s social media properties, enlightening Perdue Farms’ followers and reaching a wider audience for their information.

The farmers periodically receive product samples from multiple Perdue brands for fun unboxing videos, as well as product bundles and gift certificates to help engage their audiences. Look for our farmer advocates on all the Perdue social channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

On-Farm Learning Centers – An Important Part of Our Transparency

As part of Perdue’s commitment to transparency, three on-farm Poultry Learning Centers in partnership with families in Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, are providing interactive experiences to learn about various aspects of poultry farming and proper animal care.

At these educational facilities, the family hosts guests of all ages for a transparent, interactive experience to learn about various aspects of poultry farming and proper animal care. Built seamlessly into the side of a working chicken house, each learning center includes a large viewing room that allows guests to observe the birds undisturbed in their environment.

Educational videos explain what visitors see inside the chicken house, as well as the timeline from when farmers receive the birds to how they raise and care for them while they are on the farm. Additionally, guests have the opportunity for hands-on learning using actual poultry equipment that replicates what they see through the window, including mechanized feeders and waterers and automated temperature-control technology.

Stephen Brake, a second-generation poultry farmer in Pinetops, N.C., has hosted more than 3,000 students for
tours on his farm, and the interest in learning more is only growing.

The success of the education center, which officially opened its doors in 2020, was on display in early 2024 as Steven was joined by state and local government officials, academic partners, and Perdue to celebrate an expansion – a new, fully integrated classroom and bathroom and shower facilities – that will allow the farm to accept larger
groups traveling from further distances.

Steven hopes that the education center can continue to drive transparency about the poultry industry while also
showing students of all ages where their food comes from, hopefully inspiring some future farmers along the way.

“For agriculture to succeed in this digital age and beyond, we must come together as farmers and do more
outreach to the public, advocating for our industry and teaching the next generation,” he said.

And, at the end of the day, he shares what makes it worth the incredible effort he and the team have put into the
education center. “When a student who’s been through her comes up and says, ‘you changed my life,’ that is worth more than any dollar can ever mean.”

Strengthening Farmer Relationships

Strengthening relationships with our farmers is one of four pillars of our Commitments to Animal Care poultry program.

In 2016, we created Farmer Councils in each of our poultry live production areas – broilers, breeders and turkey – to share information and receive feedback.

Since then, 20 percent of our farmers have participated in the Farmer Council process. Councils meet for four hours every six months to discuss how we can be the farmers’ choice to supply them with birds. Our focus is to understand their business from their perspective – a key learning opportunity that is mutually beneficial.

Company Stewardship Report

Learn about the steps we're taking to reach our goal of becoming the most trusted name in food and agricultural products.