Family Farms

Bob McCoy has been raising chickens for over 50 years but will tell you it's just a hobby. His wife, Mary, and their two grown children are quite certain it's more than that but are happy to go along with his attitude.

He had always dreamed of a chicken ranch on a hill and started this one with Allen Shainsky who is the founder of Petaluma Poultry, the home of Rosie® Organic chicken. He enjoys raising Organic chickens because it's more challenging than conventional chickens. No antibiotics. No animal by-products in their feed. Nothing but high-quality animal husbandry to grow the best tasting chicken around.

Always thinking of ways to improve the ranch, Bob started producing Organic compost from the “litter” in each chicken house. The “litter' is the floor covering that the chickens walk on, typically either wood shavings or Organic rice hulls so it composts easily. His next dream is to build a solar array that will provide power for the entire ranch.

Bob putters around the ranch on his John Deere tractor and considers it therapy to sit and watch his chickens grow. Then he spends his weekends at the race track driving a Ford Blazer K5 push truck that shoots six foot flames on command.

His next hobby is to refurbish the three antique cars stored under dust covers in the big barn. That is, when he's ready to be done with his first hobby, the chickens.

Humanely Raised

Mom always said you are what you eat, so it makes sense that chickens taste like what they eat. At Petaluma Poultry, the home of Rocky®, Rocky Jr®, and Rosie®, we pride ourselves on taking great care of our chickens. So it's no surprise that our chicken tastes great as well!

We provide heat in our barns when the chicks are young so they start out living comfortably and growing strong. They have 24 hour access to food and water so they can eat and drink whenever they like. Their feed consists of corn, soy and vitamins with NO antibiotics, added hormones, or animal by-products.

Our chicks live in a stress-free environment where they run freely in spacious barns with natural lighting and ventilation. They have free range access to the outdoors where they can exhibit their natural behavior and forage in the grass, perch on hay bales, dust themselves or just relax in the shade. Then they return to the barn at night to avoid predators.

A healthy barn will typically have about one-fourth of the chickens eating, one-fourth drinking, one-fourth sleeping, and one-fourth walking around and exploring.

And, that's what you find when you walk through a Petaluma Poultry barn. Happy, healthy, comfortable chickens.

Organic Certification

It's not easy to grow Organic chickens! You can't just say that you're Organic. The National Organic Program, a part of the USDA, mandates a rigid set of guidelines.

The land Organic chickens live on and the farmland that grows their food must be free from synthetic chemicals for at least three years.

Organic chickens must be fed an all vegetarian diet consisting of Organic grains. Synthetic chemicals like fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, and food additives, as well as genetically modified organisms and irradiation cannot be used on or in any food the chickens eat. Organic chickens must be free range with access to a secure, fenced outdoor area where they can roam and forage. Organic chicken "litter," the material that covers the floor of the barn where they live, must be Organically certified.

We must also keep an audit trail of detailed, written production and sales records and participate in periodic on-site inspections by an independent auditing group, Quality Assurance International.

It's a lot of rules to follow, but it's worth it for us to ensure quality chicken for you and your family.

Industry Leadership

Operating much like when we began as a small farm and processing company forty years ago, Petaluma Poultry, the home of Rocky®, Rocky Jr®, and Rosie®, has maintained an unwavering commitment to leading the industry through food safety, sustainability, and animal husbandry.

We worked with the USDA to establish the high standards of Organic Certification in poultry and brought the first certified Organic chicken to the U.S. market – Rosie® Organic Free Range Chicken. We created the first USDA-approved free range chicken program branded as Rocky The Range® chicken. We advocated to the National Organics Standards Board the importance of strictly enforcing the free range requirement for the Organic certification of poultry. We were the first food company in the world to earn the ISO 14001 environmental certification in 2004. We were named 2002 Environmental Business of the Year by the Sonoma County Conservation Council and received the WRAP award from the State of California for exemplary resource conservation. We were the country's first Organic chicken company to use trayless packaging.

We're proud of our history of leadership and are excited to see what the next forty years bring!

4^th Generation Farmer

As a fourth generation California farmer, Mike Leventini traces his agriculture roots back to his Swiss-Italian great-grandfather who immigrated to the USA and started a dairy farm.

After earning a degree in Animal Science and a graduate degree in Animal Nutrition, Mike gained poultry experience with several prominent companies on the West Coast. He eventually found his way to Petaluma Poultry, the home of Rocky®, Rocky Jr®, and Rosie®, and has never looked back.

So why does Mike think Petaluma Poultry is so special? Since our chickens don't receive antibiotics, we must do a better job at building their immune systems naturally and providing a stress-free environment. This means we provide them with higher quality feed, fresher air, cleaner houses that aren't too hot or too cold, and more room to roam.

We also have a deeply rooted philosophy that chickens need to live in an environment that allows them to exhibit their natural behavior. This means encouraging them to run freely in outdoor yards, forage in the grass, perch on hay bales, and dust themselves.

Not surprisingly, Mike's three children have both feet firmly planted in agriculture. Active in Future Farmers of America (FFA) and 4-H, both agriculture-related youth leadership organizations, all three raise lambs which they show at the California State Fair. His oldest daughter has a degree in Agriculture Business and is pursuing a graduate degree in Agriculture Communications. Talk about a chip off of the old block!

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. It's how things remain diverse and productive over time. On chicken ranches, it's defined by the things we do to retain the natural order and decrease waste.

We become more sustainable by introducing big ideas, like replacing styrofoam trays with biodegradable pouches. Or, the composting program we support on all of our ranches. The “litter” in each chicken house, the floor covering that the chickens walk on, is typically either wood shavings or rice hulls. This needs to be replaced periodically so instead of sending it to a landfill, we compost it then sell the compost as fertilizer. On our Organic ranches, it's Organic fertilizer!

We also become more sustainable with less obvious things. Some of our ranches have owl houses because owls keep the rodent population down. Or llamas and emus who not only eat the grass down but also keep the coyotes away from the chicken barns. And solar power that operates electric gates and spot lights.

Sustainability is better for our people, our poultry and our planet. And it's just the way we do business.