Jose Cabezas
Major Professor: Dr. Moriah Bilenky
MS Defense Seminar
July 20th @ 1:00 PM
Room: HORT 222
“Chicken-Based Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems for Sall-Scale Organic Vegetable Production: Animal Productivity and Meat Quality, Soil Nutrition and Tomato Yield, AND Food Safety”
Abstract
Integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) are gaining interest among producers, consumers, and policymakers as a viable alternative for small-scale organic production. ICLS offer agronomic and ecological benefits including improved nutrient cycling and resilience, yet they have been investigated primarily in agronomic crops and using ruminants, leaving chicken-based ICLS for small-scale organic vegetable production an alternative that is largely unexplored. To address this gap, a chicken-based cover crop-tomato rotation was established over two growing seasons (2024–2025) on certified organic land at the Purdue University Meigs Horticulture Research Farm (Lafayette, Indiana, USA) to assess (1) crop productivity and soil fertility, (2) animal performance and meat quality, and (3) the food safety implications of adopting such system.Treatments combined animal or non-animal integration with different forage management strategies (crop-only [CS], integration with low forage [ICLS-LF], and high forage [ICLS-HF]) with soil management (tillage [T] or no-tillage [NT]) in a randomized complete block design with split plot factor.(1) Year was the largest source of variation in yield, with generally lower yields in 2025. Integration treatment alone did not affect yield, but its interaction with soil management did: tilled ICLS plots obtained better yields than non-tilled plots in 2024, whereas no-tillage plots produced greater yields on average in 2025, buffering against inter annual variability. No-tillage plots retained higher levels of soil phosphorus and potassium, and the CS-NT treatments showcased a spike in nitrate-nitrogen that had dissipated by harvest.(2) Slow-growing broiler chickens (Freedom Ranger, 2024; Red Sasso, 2025) were reared indoors for their first 5 weeks, and then transferred to cover crop, where they were reared for 42–46 days per year. Cover crop mowing reduced forage quality, yet did not significantly affect growth, feed efficiency, carcass traits, or meat color in either year; year was again the dominant source of variation. Chickens in 2024 achieved higher live weights, lower FCR, and greater breast yields than in 2025.(3) Across 878 samples spanning the animal reservoir, field environment, and harvested crop, Salmonella spp. prevalence was low (1.14%), restricted to the post-integration sampling point, and absent from tomato fruit in both seasons, with no difference between tilled and no-till plots.Collectively, these findings demonstrate that chicken-based ICLS can enhance soil nutrient retention and yield resilience without compromising animal performance or produce safety, offering a promising strategy for resilient, land-efficient organic vegetable production in the Midwest.