Thursday, March 28, 2024

Forest to free range eggs

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A south Waikato egg company has combined forestry and poultry to establish New Zealand’s first large-scale free range forest, where it will be the home to 320,000 hens once complete.
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The 139ha property currently produces eggs under the Heyden Farms Free Range brand for egg producer and supplier Better Eggs Limited.

Better Eggs chief executive Gareth van der Heyden says they came up with the concept three-and-a-half years ago when they were looking at ways to significantly improve the environment for the hens and lower their carbon footprint.

He says it was in response to growing consumer awareness of ethical food production and environmental sustainability.

“What we have tried to do is see if we could make agri-forestry work with free range egg production, and this is what we have done,” Van der Heyden said.

The farm’s forestry design centres around the welfare of the hens first rather than planting trees and retrofitting a layer hen operation around the forestry.

“This has been set up as a free range layer hen operation. Yes, it’s a forest, but first and foremost, it’s a free range farm, so the whole planting plan has been set up with a focus on hen enrichment,” he said.

The property is a former forestry block purchased in 2018. Site work such as shed pads and tree planting was undertaken to get it established, and the first shed was completed last month, housing 40,000 birds.

The birds are run in eight flocks of 5000 birds.

The second shed is scheduled to be completed in 2022, and tree planting for shed three will get under way in September 2021.

Eventually Van der Heyden hopes to have eight barns spread out over the property over the next several years.

Close to the shed are 10 metres of manuka plantings, while further back are oaks and poplar plants, followed by pines and natives further back. Around 90,000 native and exotic trees are to be planted on the property.

The trees planted on the property will be milled for timber or pulp when they mature as well as sequestering carbon.

It is believed to be the only kind of farm of its type in NZ at this scale.

The barns will house the birds at night. During the day, the birds are given unrestricted access to the forest area.

“They will be able to roam and scratch on the forest floor in the shade, shelter and safety provided by the trees and the laying sheds are specially designed to give the hens natural light and ample space to roam around in,” he said.

The farm is highly automated, enabling staff on site to spend a greater portion of their time caring for the hens.

The barn was important because it provided the birds with warmth, protection and shelter. They are also equipped with nest boxes to provide a quiet place to lay their eggs. 

Eggs are transported from the nesting boxes via conveyor belts to a robot that packs the eggs into trays and pallets, which are then collected by trucks for delivery to the existing grading and distribution facility nearby in Lichfield.

The eggs are then shipped to retail outlets to be sold under the Heyden Farms Free Range brand.

The forest free range site was officially opened by local MP Louise Upston earlier this month.

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