UQ Gatton senior lecturer Dr John Dingle believes some old chooks could do with a good leathering.
You’ve heard of emu leather, crocodile leather and even cane-toad leather, now brace yourself for chicken leather or “Poulard”.
Dr Dingle recently completed a year-long pilot study funded by the Rural Industries Research Development Corporation (RIRDC) showing a viable chicken-leather industry for items such as steering-wheel covers, mobile-phone-covers and gloves. He is now seeking a commercial partner to develop the idea further.
Dr Dingle said he would have a chicken leather patchwork sheet on display at the upcoming UQ Gatton Open Day on Sunday, August 25, from 9.30am until 3pm.
He said Australia’s egg industry was interested in a higher-return on chickens once their egg-laying days were over while demand for craft leather always outstripped supply.
“The study showed even if only half a chicken’s skin was of a high-enough quality for the leather industry, egg-producers could still get $1 a chicken, 30 cents more than they receive at present,” he said.
With a similar feel to chamois, chicken leather was tough and thick once processed yet still soft and flexible enough to be used for a variety of items including key-ring fobs and tourist souvenirs, he said.
“As with ostrich leather, chicken leather features an interesting texture with clusters of follicles rather than a uniform spread of follicles as is the case with emu leather,” Dr Dingle said. “For this reason, it would be excellent in any application where good grip was required such as for steering-wheel covers.”
He said as with duck leather, currently a lucrative industry for farmers in the Philippines, smaller pieces of chicken leather could be sown together to make larger items.
Dr Dingle said he didn’t think the market would have an aversion to the idea of chicken leather given the popularity of other animal leathers such as cane-toad.
“Our research has shown people are more accepting of bird and reptile leathers than they are of mammal leathers such as kangaroo. However, we would still have to think of a classier name for chicken leather which is why we came up with ‘Poulard’ as a working title,” he said.
The UQ Gatton Open Day will feature talks about programs in the animal studies, agriculture and horticulture, agribusiness and environmental management areas as well as tours of the dairy, equine unit, library, halls of residence and plant nursery. There will also be equestrian events and many other activities available to visitors and prospective students. A detailed program can be found at: www.studyatuq.net
For more information, contact Dr John Dingle (telephone 07 5460 1250 or email jgd@sas.uq.edu.au), Anthony Smith at UQ Gatton (telephone 07 5460 1229) or Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2339).
