American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA) will unite with Heritage Poultry Breeders (HPB). The two organizations are voluntarily merging their assets under the APPPA organization, so that the educational goals and resources for poultry breeders can be realized through APPPA’s reach.

APPPA and HPB agree that assimilating HPB resources into the APPPA organization provides a strategic advantage for heritage poultry, poultry breeding in general, and for the broader pastured poultry community. APPPA’s inclusion of poultry breeding will fall in line with its broader mission of advocating for pastured poultry as a profitable business model.

HPB was formed to organize a community of passionate Heritage Poultry breeders – enabling sharing, educating, and developing the knowledge base needed to improve and restore standard breeds to their original purposes. APPPA encourages the production, processing, marketing, and purchasing of poultry raised on pasture through education and networking opportunities for both producers and consumers. This announcement formally declares breeding as a topical area of interest for APPPA and APPPA members.

While we understand that many heritage poultry enthusiasts breed for exhibition and show, APPPA’s focus will remain on pastured models, integrating breeding for breed-specific productivity and profitability of standard-bred poultry into our other resources. By incorporating heritage poultry breeding resources into APPPA, there are opportunities to expand heritage poultry adoption, forge marketing relationships between breeders and growers, and build a more resilient pastured poultry community.

What’s this mean for existing APPPA members?

APPPA remains focused on pastured poultry as a for-profit business model. This focus creates the necessary for diversity within the community in terms of breed, feed, markets, and production scales.

The most obvious change is that you will start to see breeder-specific topics covered in articles, trainings, and networking. The creation of a breeder specific discussion group will be the first tangible change, the discussion list is open to any APPPA member.

Stay tuned for announcements and updates and remember this caveat:: We are staking the claim that no other association advocates for pastured poultry like APPPA does, and we believe that developing profitable models for breeding heritage poultry is a critical part of the long-term health of pastured poultry.

As we settle in and incorporate changes designed to include breeders, you will hear a lot about breeding as we setup those resources. Know that APPPA will continue to hold open a large umbrella that makes room for all pastured poultry producers.

APPPA believes that incorporating passionate breeders with the most knowledgeable pastured poultry community in the world will lead to strategic partnerships and opportunities that we’ve not yet begun to imagine.