From welder to egg collector
James Maclean can't wait to swap the relative comfort his farm workshop offers during the winter months for a few hours of free range egg production.
James is the latest in a growing number of arable farmers who are diversifying into free range egg production, not only to boost farm incomes but to utilise labour during the quieter months of the growing season.
On James' family farm in the Scottish Borders near Berwick upon Tweed, the labour will be his own which is the main reason he's opted to produce organic eggs.
"We were looking for some form of diversification and free range looked a good proposition," says 29-years-old James. "But when I started to investigate further it became clear that to start up in free range, you are looking at a unit size of around 12,000 birds which was more than I could manage along with the arable area without having to employ additional labour."
Having decided that 3,000 hens was what he could cope with comfortably, James felt that organic would be the best route and has registered 3ha of the farm with the Organic Food Federation (OFF). With no other livestock on the 450-acre farm, the only separation from the main holding is a 10-metre buffer strip between the organic plot and the conventionally farmed land.
He admits he has invested heavily in the new enterprise and the cost per bird is likely to exceed £25 once all expenses have been taken into account, including ancillary equipment such as a standby generator. But it is an investment in which he is confident, describing free range poultry as "a sector on the up".
"Over the years we have watched the profit from growing cereals continually dwindle and while this year's wheat price has bucked the trend, there's no certainty it will last," says James.
"We've had to look at other options. We tried contracting for a while but I came to the conclusion I wanted to be doing something here at home, not chasing round the countryside on a tractor. I think egg production is going to fit in very well."
James, who has secured a contract to supply Deans Foods, has gone for a Newquip mobile building fitted with Big Dutchman equipment and, unusually for a mobile house, powered ventilation and full composite panel sides.
"After looking at free range units throughout the country, it became clear that an enclosed building was going to be easier to control. I'm sure naturally ventilated systems can work very well but I was uneasy about the affects of the weather on the house environment," says James. "This way we have been able to dispense with the side curtains which I felt left a lot of the house exposed, which could be a problem in the winter. Newquip have supplied and built exactly what I was looking for."
The Lohmann Brown hens are due to arrive early next month and James is raring to go, for he describes October to March as a "shut-down period" for the farm when he's often left searching for something to do in the workshop once essential maintenance tasks are completed.
James is keen to learn as much as he can about egg production and to that end he recently volunteered to join the BFREPA council.
"As a new entrant I feel it's important to learn from experienced producers and the Association's council is an excellent forum in that respect," says James, whose commitment to the cause involved a 600-mile round trip to attend the council's first meeting of 2007, held last month at Hy-Line UK's offices in Warwickshire.
James also knows that producing organic eggs will bring its own particular challenges. One of those is the prospect of having to haul the manure from his flock to a farm 10 miles away in order to satisfy the ruling that it must be spread on organic ground—even though it would be a valuable resource for his farm's own arable operation.
And then there's escalating feed prices to be dealt with, due to the current shortage of organically grown wheat. But at this stage James has no plans to convert more land in order to grow his own organic wheat.
"The location of the farm enables us to grow some good crops of cereals," explains James. "At the moment it makes more sense to maximise output of conventional wheat and buy in the organic poultry feed. But who knows, that situation could change, particularly if organic feed prices were to remain at the level they are now."
Commenting on James' co-option to the council, BFREPA chairman Tom Vesey said: "We are delighted to have James onboard. He is just the sort of new entrant the sector needs—committed with a determination to do the job well.
"Not only will the council benefit from his enthusiasm and fresh ideas, I'm pleased that we now have a representative in Scotland where we are seeing a steady increase in membership."
