Open day attracts would-be free rangers
The egg price may be plummeting but judging by the attendance at a free range open day in Suffolk, there’s still no shortage of new recruits.
Phil and Christine Greenacre threw open the doors of their 20,000 bird unit earlier this month in an event jointly organised with Potters Poultry. While visitors over the two days did include existing producers keen to take a look at the Greenacres two state-of-the-art buildings, the majority were new entrants at various stages down the road to becoming fully-fledged producers.
It’s just over twelve months since Phil and Christine joined the growing number of farmers diversifying into free range egg production. Park Farm at Syleham was predominantly an arable operation but the Greenacres certainly weren’t newcomers to livestock with the farm also home to a large pig fattening enterprise.
“The future for arable farming wasn’t looking good with wheat down to £60 a tonne,” said Phil. “We both like livestock and felt free range would compliment the farm well and ensure its long-term viability.”
With a contract to supply Deans Countryside the Greenacres put up a 12,000 bird Harlow house, fitted out with the latest equipment from Potters. In what has become termed the ’Potters package’, the midlands-based company also supplied the Hy-Line pullets.
Following on from the success of that first flock, a second house was erected and filled with 8000 birds—again Hy-Line—this April. Not wishing to deviate from a winning formula, Phil and Christine opted for a similar package.
“With Potters supplying both the equipment and the pullets I had no worries whether the shed would be ready in time,” says Phil.
In fact the house was in operation a month ahead of the original schedule after Phil received a call from Olivia Potter—who runs the pullet rearing side of the family business—to see if they could take an earlier flock.
“Potters had another customer for 8000 birds who was having problems with planning,” explained Phil. “Olivia wanted to know if we could swap flocks.”
At the time, Phil had started the groundwork and the contractor said he could meet the new schedule as did Harlow.
“Basically the ball was in Potters’ court and Olivia’s brother Justin pulled the stops out and ensured the shed was kitted out in time. We received the birds a month earlier than originally planned.”
When it comes to labour, the Greenacres run a very lean operation and both Phil and Christine are out of bed every morning at 4.30am. The only other labour on the farm is one full-time and one part-time worker who look after the pigs and are only seconded to the poultry unit at clean-down time. Because of this the free range unit is highly automated.
Potters two-tier centre belt nests feeding farm packers enable the Greenacre husband and wife team to have finished egg collection by 8.00am each morning. This frees up Phil to sit on a tractor seat—something he admits to being very bored by—for the rest of the day as he attends to nearly 200 acres of cereals and sugar beet.
Automatic popholes ensure the birds are let out at the same time every morning and closed up again in the evening. A bell ringing outside timed to coincide with the final run of the feeder signifies to the hens that supper is on offer and they head for home. A gradual dimming of the house lights draws in any last stragglers.
Phil has also got the measure of another aspect of free range egg production that can be very time consuming—that of maintaining the litter in good condition. On both sides of the house is an eight metre wide strip of stone but before the birds reach this as they come off the range, they have to walk over weldmesh frames that Phil constructed in the workshop during the winter months.
“Our scratch area has been like dust all year around,” he told the Ranger.
One tool that Phil believes is invaluable is the Rotem, a computerised flock management system which was also supplied and installed by Potters. It enables accurate monitoring of both feed and water intake, along with the birds’ bodyweight by means of a special weighing platform in the house.
“When we changed the birds’ ration from a mid-lay to an end-of-lay, within days we were able to spot that all was not well,” said Phil. ”Intake went down and the birds began to lose bodyweight until we switched them back to the original diet. We would not have spotted this without the Rotem.”
With egg prices now falling the Greenacres high-capital investment in free range is looking less rosy than it was twelve months ago. Yet Phil still manages to take a philosophical view of it all.
“It’s inevitable that it will be something of a roller coaster ride at times and twenty years in pigs has prepared us for that. When the price drops it just means we’ve got to get even better at what we do.”
Phil believes the recent downturn in profitability will now put off those who were planning to borrow a lot of money to start up or were thinking of getting into free range for the wrong reason.
“It was the same several years ago with outdoor pigs,” recalls Phil. “Arable farmers were pouring into it but it just didn’t last. They weren’t livestock farmers and underestimated the work and commitment involved.
“The same applies to free range—it’s not an easy option.”
