By Hannah Cargill, contract production manager, Avara Foods
After a few days of remote working recently, I found myself staring at my laptop, missing the smell of a broiler shed (maybe not quite).
As a contract production manager, I live the hybrid life—some days in the office, some at home, but I’m truly in my element when I’m out on farms with our growers… and of course, the chickens. So being stuck behind a screen, trying to manage things from a distance, has been a bit of a challenge.
When a feed issue cropped up that needed boots on the ground, I was lucky to have Mark Mathias from my team step in and visit the farm for me. Thanks to him, we got it sorted. But it made me wonder: could broiler farms be managed entirely remotely?
The tech certainly exists—cameras, sensors, AI-powered data dashboards. You can sit in a chair miles away and monitor everything from humidity to lighting to feed levels. Sounds futuristic, right? But just because we can, does that mean we should?
There are farms already doing this to an extent—stock people on-site doing the basics, while climate control and environment decisions are made remotely. And sure, it can work. But in my experience, nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a skilled stock person who really knows their birds.
You know the type. The one who walks into a shed and just listens—the subtle sound of content clucking or the eerie silence that means something’s off. The one who takes one whiff and knows the ventilation needs tweaking. The person who doesn’t just manage birds but understands them.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for innovation. Data is gold, and smart tech will help us raise birds with better welfare and lower environmental impact, for sure; but tech should support stock people, not replace them.
Just like I can’t help farms properly from behind a desk full-time, our growers need to be there, in the shed, sleeves rolled up, chicken dust in their hair. Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about what the sensors say—it’s about what the chickens feel.