Free range operation a cracking good idea

In 2016, John and Catriona Byrne, Pages Flat, and Gregg and Casey Nash, Yundi, began “pastured free range” egg brand Feather & Peck.

They run about 3000 Hy-Line Brown chickens – half on each farm – moving them across their farms in chicken trailers, in conjunction with their beef operations.

Mr Byrne said the idea “took a while to evolve” after he attended a seminar with United States-based holistic farmer Joel Salatin.

After discussing with long-time friend Mr Nash, they eventually began running the chickens about 2.5 years ago, with two trailers on each farm, and have gradually expanded since then, adding their 10^th trailer in October.

Mr Byrne said they selected Hy-Line hens as they were known for being “robust and don’t mind weather changes”, which suited them as the animals spend about 80 per cent of each day outside.

The Nashes operate Angus stud Glen Fern, running about 100 breeders and turning off 20 to 30 bulls each year, while the Byrnes have about 50 Angus breeders as well as backgrounding steers.

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Travel triggers free range idea

The beef herd and chickens work together, with the cattle grazing the pasture to about 100 millimetres and the chicken trailers being moved every week, eventually covering the whole of each property.

Mr Nash said the chickens had the benefit of reducing reliance on fertiliser.

“It’s all good to go and buy chook manure, but then you’ve got freight and spreading costs to move it around,” he said.

“We’ve got the fertiliser where and when we want it.”

He said the chickens were also useful in breaking apart and spreading cow manure.

Mr Byrne said they had conducted some soil tests in November, so they had a baseline for what they were achieving.

“Anecdotally, we get great rebound in the pasture,” he said.

“We can really see a difference in the colour of the pasture where the trailers have been.”

They say 3000 chickens is a good number for their operation.

“It’s a complementary business, within a business,” Mr Byrne said.

“It seems to be we can run this number of chooks on the farm without any reduction in cattle numbers – and they work in a complementary way.”

The chickens are brought onto the farm at 16 weeks of age, with some training to ensure they roost and lay in the trailer by 21 weeks.

Mr Byrne said the chickens were most productive in their first year – on average laying between 300 to 330 eggs in that time.

At about 70 to 80 weeks of age, they are sold, predominantly through online portals, such as Gumtree, as layers to backyard operations.

As well as having access to pasture, the chickens are supplementary fed with a mix of grains and mineral mix from a local feed mill.

Mr Nash said they had a learning curve in the early stages but they had learned to interpret from the flock if there were any issues.

Maremma dogs are on both farms, along with portable electric fencing, to keep the flocks safe.

Mr Byrne said consumer feedback to Feather & Peck pastured free range eggs had been “fantastic”.

“There is a whole education piece – people are often confused about what free range means,” he said.

“But we’re certainly getting feedback that consumers think this is genuine and what they have in their head as free range.”

They run their flocks at a density of less than 75 hens a hectare.

The eggs are packed and graded at a shed in Mount Compass, with Mr Byrne saying this aspect was as much a learning curve as their initial management of the chickens.

The eggs are sold via the Adelaide and Willunga farmers’ markets,  with the Victor Harbor Farmers’ Market a new addition, as well as Frewville and Pasadena Foodland supermarkets, some IGAs and direct supply to cafes.

They will also be trialling some value-added options, such as hard boiled eggs.

“There has been such strong demand for a quality free range, pasturefed product,” Mr Byrne said.

While both the Nashes and Byrnes believe they are at the upper limit of what they should run on their farm, they see opportunity to expand further by bringing in new farms.

Mr Byrne said they had spoken to some interested farmers and believe it would be a benefit for any ruminant operations – such as sheep or dairy.

“It really is diversification of risk – egg sales are a constant income stream, not up and down like cattle can be,” he said.

“The flipside is you have to collect the eggs every day.”