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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1973-01-25, Page 15Crossro�ds thowookly bees Littotwel Sasser, Wla**. irra.ce- �tsI Ea Mon* Forest Conf.- road bY Mr009 Pe** le the "knorthindst' so; on 3;5 readers NCI* 01 PUblilthOd *Villtry wok in Themos and �Iisto�►�� Banner, The Advance -Times This Mount ForeSt Confederate by Wenger Oros. Limited. LMICKS UNLOADED IN MEXICO—A shipment�•of Fisher da) -olds are unloaded _. . reon, Mexico, following a jet flight from Toronto. y a at Tor - Three generutons served world markets yearns three generations and five farms, • Fisher's of Ayton continues today to serve both the family; farm of 1,000 to 5,000 layers and large commercial Units as well as dis- tributors around the world. The firm was founded in 1903 by William H. Fisher who, with sup- port from his wife, nursed and w pampered their, birds through - good and bad for almost 30 years until they had a solid operation. Their sons Irwin and Herb, continued the operation, with gui- dance from the founder for most of the next 35 years until Herb be- gan a gradual retirement in 1964. Irwin passel away in 1967 and Herb, although no, longer active in management, continues his keen interest in present opera; tions and helps out occasionally. The grandson of the founder and nephew of both Herb and Ir- win, Ron Clarridge, has,directed the fortunes of the firm' for most of the past seven years `Today the five Fisher " farms total more than 300 acres with rows and rows of `well -kept red buildings including hatchery, re- search and production facilities, pedigree breeding facilities, par- • ent and grandparent _ stock houses, floor and cage brooding units, cage growing houses and artificial insemination .units. Day-old chicks frequently de- part from the Fisher farm to tra- vel by train and plane to the far corners of the world. Williarn Fisher first to s hi day-olclsp Did you know that newborn cern} ed 'him until he finally ,res- From that day to this Fisher's baby chicks don't need to eat lized that new-born chicks sur- : have never looked back and . anything for the first three days vive on a 'self-feeding' basis for today day-old Fisher chicks are of their lives? approximately the • first three shippedp'bytruck and train all Well, they don't -and this fact days. S led to an unpor'tsnt. di�cd'� ery��b � � � : � Otice.iconvin;..,Canada and are flown x y ced of this fact, .. .. - . ���'h Toronto til rna •e fr • � T'o t me do Air- !. 77. t. :vy • �1T v T v •� b 1905 which has led to ' , , ay's .:others, bybeingthe first Person _ giant business of flying day-old in Canadto advertise ansiI"hil%pp a<es,.Ce Italy Korea, Peru, baby chicks to the far corners of p upon Spain Italy and Holland the world. During his many early studies and observations, William Fisher' was puzzled by. this unique quirk of nature in his chicks. It con - TORONT ,4.1,0000 s senior chick hatc tablished 7 0 years a The Aldest established Fisher stockwas selected by the breeding farm in Canadian Government to. repre possibly the second Oldest In' ,. -sent Canadian poultry at con- orth America, continues to telt, gresses in Ottawa (1927), London, Improve and produce some of the England (1930) itItonie, Italy world's finest egglayers--,40 .d (1935). its founder in 1903. On three occasions, a Fisher Fisher Poultry Farm Limited entry of White Wyandottes in of Ayton, Ontario. todayiz �di-. 'Storrs Egg Laying Competition in versified operationinvolved. In Connecticut was the highest en - the breeding and distribution 'ot try for the breed in all contests in egg production breeding Steekk. Canada and the United States. A day,'`'old commercial chick sal!,pen of Fisher Wyandottes also production of - half a 'Million ; won first prize over all breeds in startedpullets annually and Don't-• _,the Ontario contest at Ottawa as mercial egg production. farback as the early 1920's. Froin the• day in 1903 when the: WilSuch is fame. Some of the con- founder, liam H. Fisher, ;test birds came home with leuco- tained hip firstflock of white sis, the most dreaded of all poul Wyandotte brooding hens to try diseases. It hit suddenly and his living from, breeding ebick+ r .'with devastating force in 1932, and, the sale. t; d -a near-total - ole � raTi dzs�.,�.er for meat, a tradition has lived. in , v the aging found, r and his two Ayton for more than 70 years. sons. Almost as important to this For almost ten years, they institution as their,contintiiu'ef* ,lived with the disease and watch - forts to improve thein bird strains ed it take its toll. Research men and egg quality is the family. de- from across the continent were votion to excellence which has helpless in their efforts to control prevailed through' three genera, . the disease. tions. • Once again, the Fisher will to Several Firsts `Succeed took over, and after William Fisher, who died,111. countless tests, experiments and 1967, pioneered the Fisher- Poul-.; the process of elimination, they try Farm L mited for almost 27 discovered the virus, or bug, was years, livingon a day -to -00,i'. confined to the brooder house. It basis with his birds, suffering wasn't from the hatchery or through bad times and enjoyie transmitted through the eggs be - his rewards in times of prospeari cause customers purchasing day- ty. During these years he relent- old chicks or hatchineggs were lessly experimented; tested and not having any problems. conducted personal research on ` Disease Isolated every aspect of the poultry bust.: They tested .their theory by nets. As a direct result, William brooding chicks with no mature Fisher is credited with a number birds close by and the isolated of `firsts' among early poultry : chicks had little mortality. They men. >F , 1t Y 10�iinued to `test and retest and s'Ilniin ' � lN� fi/ Y iiAili�� •f5 I�t ,•{y7ftj a..bw�.r. . rx,..- �.., dscov rY g` ee' ed a •prograri+i of preite�- cry' concerning the ship.r tion t which worked ' extremely ment of newborn chicks long Mk- well. The isolation brooding pro- ces, the senior Fisher con- gram was documented, widely Hued to astound the poultrymen distributed and adopted by his. day (mostly fanciers .who poultrymen across North Ameri- velopedebreeds to a high peak ca. of The Fisher leucosis control program was first successful in 1942. Twenty-one years later in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Dr. Mar- tin " Sevoian of the Veterinary Science Department of the Uni- versity of Massachusetts, told the Ontario Hatcheries Association convention it was still the best known method of control for the disease. Dr. Sevoian's comments were based on years of extensive reseal. -..h and the title of his talk was "Recent Concepts on the Subject of Leucosis". Broiler Stock In 1940 cross-breds were of- fered for sale and soon proved highly popular. Several years later the broiler industry - began in Ontario and Fisher Hamp- Wyandottes were in great de - baby chicks. In 1905, the first With jet -age travel. the chicks tan shipments of day-old Fisher ti chicks left Ayton and travelled a are born in Ayton and are in their of distance' of 1 500 miles to a farm new environment on the other d in Nova Scotia, giving satisfac side of the world when nature tion to . the courageous buyer. tells them it's time to eat. 4 CHARTING BIRD PROGRESS—Ron Clarridge charts progress of Fisher chicks at Ca- dena's Mexican poultry farm while Pepe IzagUrra, sales manager, (left), Senior Cadena and Pepe Cardinalis, breeder farm manager, (right) look. on. in 1 aiiru 1111 Ii IM MD rola 11 w WM OMR �- BIRDS 'BROOD' IN MEXICO—Part of a shipment of 15,000 Fisher parent breeding stock being brooded in new barn at farm pf Senior Antonio Morales Cadena near Torreon in Cen- tral Mexico. Senior CodenaIs a Fisher distributor in Mexico and visited the Fisher facili- ties at Ayton in 1972. These birds are about two weeks old, having ar- lied by air as day -olds. The Cadena farm operates a breeder flodk of ,about 80,000 bids a year. perfection for showing at fall fairs) by specializing on the com- mercial value of his breeding birds. The poultrymen of his day considered this move a very cou- rageous decision .at best, but in the main, thought he was daft. In the early years poultry ° breeding was almost a hobby and fanciers, as we now call them, were having a field day. Scores of breeds were developed to a high peak of perfection and every fall fair, large or small, could count on heavy entries in the poultry section. Heavy egg production . inter- fered with smooth feather'ig and was not desired. If there were eggs to set under a few broody hens and some for the family table, all was well... but for W. II. Fisher to take these `hobby' birds and begin mass breeding .and production was generally considered foolish. Fought Disease ere must have been times en the founding Fisher had nd thoughts himself, such as bad years when pullorum dis- just about wrecked him. But turned negatives into positives the start of bloodtesting all ders for pullorum in 1928. In than two years the trouble over and Fisher had another in scientific control. early as 1913 Mr. Fisher and wo young boys, Irwin and , started trapnesting and pgdigreeing to locate the highest producers for the purpose of breeding replacement stock. In 1919 the official Record of Perfor- mance policy for poultrymen was instituted by the Federal Depart- ment of Agriculture and the Fisher entry was one of the first accepted. Th wh seco the ease he with bree less was first As his t Herb The great depression of the early thirties, coupled with poor health for Mr. Fisher, necessita- ted the entrance of his two sons on a full-time basis in the busi- ness.'They were thoroughly ex- perienced poultrymen in their own 'fright and for more than 30 years, with guidance from their father, they developed Fisher Poultry Farm Limited into a large and prosperous operation. International During their years of manage- ment, the Fisher brothers were confident and quite willing to en- ter their birds in public competi- tion and: Fisher entries won many egg laying tests, including three selections as the Canadian entry to the World's Poultry Congress. mend. In the late,1940's and early 1950's, Fisher broiler chicks -ac- countedfor almost 50 per cent of the broilers produced in 'Ontario with an annuat Chick production of almost 1.7 million. However the Hamp-Wyandotte chick was a dual-purpose bird and while it was one of the top broiler ,chicks available at the outset, it gradually fell behind the specialized meat breeds. Another development taking place at the same tinge was the vertical inte- gration of the broiler industry. The Fisher Poultry Farm, hav- ing been an independent family business for almost half a cen- tury, was reluctant to sell out to, or be controlled by, a large. feed company or processor. Brothers Herb and Irwin were unwilling to add either a feed mill or process- ing plant' to their facilities. Egg Production The ,pride of ingenuity and independence was too strong in the Fishers and they subsequent- ly began a gradual withdrawal from the broiler breeding„ -and hatching business that had been so successful for them for many years. With broilers dropped, full attention was given the breeding of. egg production stock. Rhode Island Reds and White Legherns. were mated with the old faithful White Wyandotte to produce two cross -bred layers called the "Fisher 503" and the "Fisher 303". These layers proved highly successful with Fisher customers, and the "Fisher 503" is still pro- duced° tc lay, The "Fisher 303", which was dropped in 1968, won top quartile placings in 1957, '58 and '60 in Central Production tests in" Ottawa., With the advent of the commer- cial egg production industry, it became apparent that the layers would have' to be small and effi- cient. In 1953, with their attention directed to White Leghorns, the Fisher bretherstrected new, uni- form -form testing facilities and went to work. The bird developed was calla the "Fisher 1.e.3" --a Sayer which consistently finished inthe top quartil=e of the random sample tests it entered --as well as winning the 1961 Ottawa test. In 1962 the "Fisher 103" topped all entries imthe Ottawa test for net revenue per bird over chick and feed cost. New Type With no room for complacency, the. Fisherbrothers produced an- other new layer in 197, the "Fisher '105", and it promptly marked its introduction by win- ning the 1968 central random sample test at "Ottawa in its -first CHICK CHECK IN JAPAN—Kaichi Yamashita, managing director of Yamashita Breeding Hatchery of Kyoto, Japan, 'looks on while Ron Clarridge checks a Tess than 48 -hour -old chick upon arrival from Canada. year of production. In 1972 anew y . variety called. the KI .107" made its .appearance, ' overt and' ' proven layers are.e producedbya cociate hies across Canada, ,and areey distributed throughout Qatari°, Canada and more than a,dozen other ,countries. for the past several- years Fisher Poultry;Farm Limited ham. been associated, with P 's: Poul- try Farm Limited,o � ax w eery, Ontario 'in the export of poultry breeding stock Peers providing thebroilern ,land'' Fi layers. Most comm ciajlay.,i far, in Midwestern Ontar o usao;Fi sh 9: layers today, including Jacil 'Dunkin and Al: 'Vine' 'Mendell, both of RR 2, Wiinnghatm; .Gordon.. Dickison, . Teeswater; Witlllam . Bakker's Orangeville Farm, 'ms, RR. ,• ListowelLandesboro;,• HaroldLeith Poechma arn, ' 2, Walkerton; William Inglis,RR MountF 4, Atwood;orest . Bruceand GhItennisonent, iR ,A 1d,.. drews, RR' 4, Mount Forest. General Manager Directing the Fisher operations today is Ron Clarridge, president. and general manager And { a. grandson of the founder. Ron rep- • resents the. third generation in the ' business and continues the family tradition of concern for the dependability of Fisher birds.. With a Master's Degree in • Genetics in 1961 'from the then Ontario Agricultural College, Ron combines the experience of `on the farm' management with 41; olshieir rea'-d non of uaii rY- terto contue hq- ar . Ron has served the Fisher firm, aswell as the industry, for more than 15 years. He was president of the Ontario Hatchery Association during' 1970-71 and • the following year he was,.'presi- dent of the Canadian Hatchery ' Federation. In August of 1972, he was one of approximately 600 delegs from 250 firms to' re- present our country in export business at the Canadian Trade Fair in Peking, China. Supporting the.Fisher presi- dent is a solid team -manage- ment experts including Robert Schenk, sales and service man- " ager; Grant Houston, hatchery manager, and Lorne Schenk, pro- duction manager. They direct a staff of 25 . full-time employees and more during peak periods, in the continuing effort of quality bird and egg production. They do it all, as did their founder, at Fisher Poultry Farm Limited in tiny, tranquil Ayton—The Home of Good Chicks Since 1903'. imp Iva. RMI101 LEITH LAYERS AT LISTOWBL—Paul Leith of Leith Farms, RR 4, Listowel, gathering eggs from some of his 25,000 Fisher , layers.