Pasture-raised hens have been accomplishing the dual benefits of healthier paddocks, while also creating a product with a story for consumers.
Since founding feather&PECK in October 2016, Catriona and John Byrne have been egg farming hy-line chickens on Winbirra Farm's 90 hectares in a pasture-based farming system, as one of five farms across the Fleurieu Peninsula producing eggs for the brand.
The Byrne family, which includes their children Archer and Stella, run up to 4500 hens across eight chicken trailers.
The hens lay in nesting boxes in mobile trailers on new pasture weekly.
"Pasture raised farming means we move the vans every week," Mr Byrne said.
"Regularly moving the hens onto new pasture is key because their manure fertilises the pasture, reduces chemical inputs and gives the hens a fresh diet of grasses, bugs and worms each week."
Mrs Byrne said they felt their system was helping save the planet by enabling the sequestration of carbon - keeping it in the soil and reducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Mr Byrne said it was easy to see the difference in pasture when hens had been moved across a paddock versus stationery shedding where the grass "quickly becomes a dirt patch" and did not get a chance to regenerate.
"Pasture raised egg farming is very low density," he said. "Feather&PECK farms have no more than 75 hens/ha. But even more importantly, they have access to new grass every week and they are outdoors at least 80 per cent of their day."
Under Australian Competition & Consumer Commission standards for free-range eggs, hens are required to have "meaningful and regular access" to an outdoor range during daylight hours.
The Winbirra Farm hens are protected with an electric netted fence and a maremma dog.
When it came to egg collecting, it was all hands on deck inside the chicken trailers where the conveyor belt was wound to collect the eggs, all by hand.
Each crate holds 180 eggs and each day the Byrnes will collect about 500 eggs a day per van in their peak season.
"We collect the eggs from around mid-morning to mid-afternoon and it can take between three and four hours," Mr Byrne said. "The grading team pack on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and our eggs are delivered to customers by the end of the week.
"Our customers are made up of approximately 30pc cafes and restaurants with the rest being supermarkets, butchers, and greengrocers."
Mrs Byrne said any eggs that do not make the grading, due to size or shell, become Googlie dozens, which are sold at the Willunga Farmers Market.
"The direct to consumer market experience helps us tell the story of the eggs," she said.
"We tend to find people who shop at a farmers market are looking for a different experience as they love to talk to the farmer and are really interested in what the hens eat, what they live in and if they are happy hens."
Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers' Market executive officer Christine Robertson said there was a much greater understanding of what paddock-to-plate means by being able to buy direct from the farmer.
"They know that the eggs they get are much fresher than what they would get at the supermarket because they're literally being laid and packed a day or two days before the market, whereas at a supermarket they could have been on the shelf for some time," she said.
"There is a much greater understanding of what is happening behind the scenes."
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Egg Farmers of Australia SA and Tas director Ruth Drinkwater said "coop-to-cup" ventures provided the industry with a premium quality egg that was fresher and from a smaller local farm than the usual egg produced in high volumes from more intensive operations.
"Most of the smaller producers who are doing the paddock to plate approach are small family-run operations," she said.
"They are more hands on and small farm operations.
"I don't think most people appreciate where eggs actually come from and make a lot of assumptions about the source of eggs.
"Paddock to plate generally tend to be from hens in the open paddock."
She said it was critical to the entire economy to have farmers that were sustainable and profitable.
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