Crack open an egg for a weekend fry up and most people are hoping to see a generously sized yolk with a rich, deep colour. So, for several years feed companies have been offering customers conventional layer feeds containing natural colourings to help enhance the colour of their birds’ egg yolks to help ensure maximum consumer satisfaction.
Historically, due to challenges around raw material sourcing, this isn’t a product offered to organic customers. But now – thanks to some innovation from the ForFarmers team – things have changed.
“We’ve now been able to secure an exclusive supply of organic paprika, which we can add to organic layer pellets as a natural red pigment,” explains Andrew Fothergill, ForFarmers’ poultry commercial and technical advisor . “By adding the paprika, we’re helping hens produce an egg yolk with a deeper shade of orange, which looks very appealing and is more sought after by consumers.
“What’s exciting is that we now have the capability to create custom layer feeds, with different concentrations of pigment, specific to customer requirements. So, if a retailer wanted to develop a specific, premium egg range based on an intense, deep yolk colouring, we could help customers achieve this by increasing the concertation of organic paprika in the feed.”
The inclusion of organic paprika into the layers feed was trialled, tested and refined by ForFarmers’ poultry nutrition and technical team, with the first batch of the new feed produced in June last year.
To ensure organic paprika can be accurately and efficiently added to feed, ForFarmers have invested in new infrastructure at Portbury mill, where most of its organic feeds are produced. This includes new raw material feed bins and automatic weighing mechanisms.
“This project wasn’t requested by a specific customer but came about because we felt there was potential to create a unique product that would make our organic feed even better and help our valued customers produce excellent eggs,” says Fothergill. “The poultry industry is always evolving, and we need – and want – to stay at the forefront of innovation to ensure that we’re delivering the best products for our customers to help them run successful, profitable and sustainable businesses.”
CASE STUDY: David Mount, Leicestershire
Based in Melton Mowbray, David Mount keeps both conventional and organic laying hens.
Mount has kept free range eggs for 15 years and is now on his fifth flock of organic hens. Eggs are sold to Sunrise Eggs, Sileby which has contracts with a number of supermarkets.
On the free-range side, 16,000 birds are kept while for the organic flock, a Big Dutchman quad shed, consisting of four sheds of 2,250 birds, was put up and now 9,000 organic birds make the farm their home. The organic shed is on a separate part of the farm and is run separately. Controlled individually, the four sheds share muck belts.
“At the time, our packer was looking for organic eggs,” says Mount. “It was a different market for us to use to our advantage. Often when the free-range price was down, the organic stayed level.
“There was some pressure after Covid to produce more free-range eggs but there seems to be shortage in organic eggs again.”
Mount explains he had noticed the organic eggs had a paler yolk compared to the free-range. He mentioned his observation to Duncan Wheatly who suggested he tried the paprika additive.
The additive is delivered within the ration, of which Mount receives in 27 tonne loads.
“We’ve definitely noticed the difference in yolk colour since,” says Mount. “The ForFarmers feed generally is very good. Some believe it is expensive but birds eat 8g less than when fed a competitor, so there is no real difference in price.
“This flock has done phenomenally well, giving 20 eggs per lifetime above breed average. They’ve laid over 370 eggs per bird between 22 and 82 weeks of age.”