A demand for small, top quality free range eggs has led to 16,000 white layers enjoying an outdoor life in the Scottish countryside, courtesy of Deans Foods.
The company has a requirement for over 10,000 cases a week to service its two egg boiling plants, one in Edinburgh and the other south of the border in Chesterfield. With white eggs being preferred to brown because they shell easier—and because internal quality tends to be better—Deans have been using Hy-Line’s HW36 strain for some time now but only in cages.
“It’s a bird that’s been specifically developed with egg processing in mind,” said Deans’ agricultural director Andrew Joret. “We’ve learnt how to manage the bird in cages to produce the size and quality of eggs we require and are now giving it a try on free range.”
Internal quality is a vital aspect of producing eggs for boiling and in a market where eggs are often presented to the customer halved with the inside contents on full display, internal faults such as blood or meat spots are a definite no-no.
“Even though the eggs are graded before sending to the boiling plant, which allows selection for quality, we are still looking for the very minimum of internal faults, which is what we get with the HW36,” said Mr Joret.
Grading is also essential in order to select the eggs according to weight, as boiling involves very precise time and temperature control which cannot be achieved if the eggs vary in size. Small eggs are the most popular for this specialised market, although mediums are sometimes used where the end product is to be chopped.
While most free range producers would shudder at the prospect of over 40% smalls, this is what Deans are achieving with careful management of the diet. With a mature bodyweight of only 1600 grams the bird is not a big eater and intakes for the intensive housed flocks have been around 95 grams, explained Mr Joret. But the bird is likely to eat more on range, particularly because of its apparent desire to range far and wide.
“The flock is only 24 weeks old, yet they have already developed a very good ranging habit,” said Mr Joret, “which is something we have seen with white birds in the past.”
As well as a strong desire to range, white strains of layer in general have a reputation for being less aggressive and Deans have not beak trimmed the flock.
“It is going to be very interesting to see how they get on but so far everything is looking very good,” Mr Joret told the Ranger
