'Waddle you do' when your ducks aren't laying eggs. I suppose the first thing you do is check that they can lay eggs? One UK farmer came a cropper when he found out a large proportion of his laying flock were in fact drakes!
Egg producer Ian Chisholm, who switched from producing chicken eggs to duck eggs after his application to join Lion was rejected, says he is now having to shut down duck egg production following a dispute with the firm that supplies his young ducks.
Ian, whose Fair Trade Company operates from Ingatestone in Essex, told Farming UK last year, when he switched production, that he expected his company to be one of the biggest producers of duck eggs in the country within three years. But he now says he is having to de-populate his flock because he says he was “let down” by his supplier, Cherry Valley of Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. He says staff will be made redundant and his expansion plans abandoned because of their mistakes.
“We ordered our day old female ducks and took delivery in early June 2013, rearing them and looking after them until they came into lay in mid November,” said Ian. “In early New Year we noticed a few issues; we had some drakes in the flock. While not totally unusual, over the coming weeks and months, as the ducks became more mature, we thought we had a few hundred,” he said. “Cherry Valley has stated on many occasions that one per cent plus is normal. In our case, 420-450 in a flock of 4000, 11 per cent plus. That is not normal.
“As we had our set-up arranged for egg production, it has caused a larger than expected mortality, by the drakes over-mating females and killing them. This is not what we expected. The costs of keeping and feeding the male population has led us into a very heavy loss making exercise and more mortality in the females,” said Ian, who said he was asking the RSPCA and Freedom Food for help to remove the flock, as he could not afford to keep them and the feed had run out. “We can no longer get feed deliveries from our supplier as cash flow does not permit and our credit limit is exceeded,” he said.
Ian Chisholm originally intended that his Fairtrade Company would be an alternative to established packers, who he believed were not paying a high enough price for producers’ eggs. He was in the process of establishing a packing operation in Essex and, he said, he had contracts ready and waiting for the eggs when his application to join the Lion code was rejected. The rejection of his application came after long-running disagreements between the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) and Ian, who had continually complained that ordinary egg producers had been on the receiving end of a very bad deal from the major packers in the United Kingdom. With his contracts dependent on Lion accreditation, Ian initially threatened to sue Lion for restriction of trade, but he eventually decided to switch from producing hens' eggs to duck eggs.
He quickly developed big plans for his new venture. In October last year he told the Ranger, "In the next three years we hope to have 25,000 to 30,000 ducks on this site. By using contract producers as well, we would hope to get the total up to 100,000. We are looking at the top end of the market - the better class deli, sandwich bars, artisan bakers. We see a long term business here and it will not just be duck eggs. We are putting in a liquid egg plant that will process hens' eggs as well, so we will be looking to take seconds and smalls, paying good prices, and some time next year we will be putting in a boiled egg plant.”
Despite his decision to shut down his duck egg production, he said the operation should still have been the right move. He said that demand for his duck eggs was strong. He had more customers than eggs, he said, but had been let down by Cherry Valley.
“The costs of keeping and feeding the male population has led us into a very heavy loss making exercise and more mortality in the females,” he said. “As pointed out by Cherry Valley in its terms and conditions, and invoice and covering email, the order email states, ‘Please find attached proforma invoice for the 4,000 female dayolds for collection on Tuesday 4th June’,” he said. “Our business plan and model to expand has been destroyed.”
He said that Cherry Valley had admitted to him in emails that mistakes had been made at the hatchery. The company had removed some drakes, but he said he was seeking compensation for his losses. He said that Cherry Valley had given him the impression both directly and through the company’s solicitor that it would be addressing the matter with urgency. “But urgency for them, as communicated by their solicitor, is in the coming week or so,” he said.
“The welfare of the birds is paramount and they cannot wait that long. In my opinion Cherry Valley should be helping us out of this situation that their mistakes created. Not only has this created major welfare issues, our staff will be made redundant, both full-time and part-time. It was planned over the next two to three years to expand the operation up to 30 to 40 thousand ducks and also egg processing on site, creating between 20 and 30 full and part-time jobs. This cannot happen because of the problems we are facing.”
FarmingUK has approached Cherry Valley for its response to Ian Chisholm’s claims. We had received no response by the time we went to press.
