More than 100 farmers, including egg and broiler producers and pig farmers, attended an open day organised by Newquip in North Yorkshire recently.
The event took place at the company’s new warehouse at Leeming Bar, and operations manager James Dye said that the open day was a happy one for all concerned – farmers attending the event enjoyed food and drink and a day out with friends and colleagues, and the company has seen a number of potential new orders generated from the day.
“We have seen a number of good enquiries as a result of the open day,” said James, who said that business from the free range egg sector was looking up a little. “It is not brilliant but it is better than it was,” said James. Free range egg producers have been struggling financially because of high feed costs and suppressed egg prices, although retail demand for free range eggs increased more than demand for cage eggs in the first quarter of this year.
Newquip provides systems for both enriched cage and free range egg producers, as well as for broiler men and pig farmers. James said the enquiries the company had received since the open day had been for both colony and free range systems. Although Newquip does supply both conventional flat deck and multi-tier systems to egg producers, the greatest demand has been for multi-tier systems in recent years – and that continues to be the case.
“In the last three years there has definitely been a swing towards people wanting multi-tier and most of the enquiries we have had from free range producers since the open day have been for multi-tier,” said James.
The open day was an afternoon affair, running from mid-day until 5pm, with those who attended able to see the latest systems on offer and speak to experts at the company about the benefits of each one.
