The 2016 annual poultry industry charity clay shoot, held by IEC, has raised £1,500 for the Midlands Air Ambulance.
It provided visitors with the unique opportunity to explore the company’s brand new poultry site, prior to opening.
The charity clay shoot, which took place on Wednesday 14 September, attracted 39 teams made up of over 150 of IEC’s biomass boiler customers, Softlay bedding customers, farmers, suppliers and representatives from local organisations
The money raised by the event has now been calculated and £1,500 will be donated to the Midlands Air Ambulance.
IEC’s previous charity shoots in 2014 and 2015 also raised £2,000 for the charity.
For this year only, the annual event moved from IEC’s headquarters at Old Springs Farm in Market Drayton to its brand new poultry site in Woodseaves.
IEC Poultry is an extension to the business which already provides large scale biomass heating installations and Softlay bedding to the agricultural industry.
Sam Kenworthy, Softlay sales manager at IEC and organiser of the shoot, explained: “Timings fell that our brand new poultry site would be almost complete at the same time as our annual charity shoot.
"It seemed like a great opportunity to enable our guests to have a look around the innovative site before the birds are moved in.
"These new-build broiler sheds have already been contracted to leading poultry producer Moy Park and are completely heated by a biomass heating system installed by IEC.
"It’s an excellent example of how we use our extensive agricultural experience to create different forms of profitable, sustainable solutions for the farming community."
'Best practice in hygiene and biosecurity measures'
IEC has worked with the Applied Group and contractors including Knights Construction, Morspan, RMW Electrical Services Ltd and AC Jackson to create the new poultry site which comprises four broiler sheds, sited in parallel and with a central corridor providing access and viewing windows into each building.
Each shed measures 116m x 24m and each of the four will house 58,000 birds. The site has been designed to develop best practice in hygiene and biosecurity measures.
Incorporated features include: showers at the entrance and exits to the central corridor, dedicated control rooms and specific protective clothing for each shed, dead bird cool stores at midway points and separate areas and facilities for catchers.
Feed bins have also been erected, outside of the “clean” concrete shed aprons, allowing feed to be blown into bins and then delivered by augers under the concrete floors.
To significantly reduce energy costs, the full heat demand of the 11,696m² bird areas, plus four future sheds, will be met by four Linka biomass boilers, installed by the IEC Heat Solutions team.
An extra addition, to maximise the use of space and productivity onsite, is a drying floor incorporated into the energy building, also heated by four Linka biomass boilers.
Sam Kenworthy added: “It was a fantastic day with a great atmosphere and we are so pleased that all of our guests had such a good time.
"We have already received very positive feedback and the event goes from strength to strength each year.
"The shoot attracted several sponsors and we are always very grateful for their generous support."
