By Matt Donald, pig and poultry farmer, Yorkshire
Even if the poultry meat market isn’t expanding in numbers, we still have to modernise existing infrastructure, this has led to our opportunity to expand the business and build a new broiler breeder site. We didn’t plan to do it in one of the wettest Winters on record, which has certainly not made it plain sailing, a hovercraft may have been more use than telehandlers at times.
Thanks to the great team at Morspan who have got on with it despite the challenging ground conditions, they have got us weatherproof for what will hopefully be a dry Spring. Connops have poured some concrete floors so we can crack on with fitting the sheds out, with birds due in Summer it will be all hands on in Spring to get finished off. It is always exciting to get stuck into a building project but there is nothing better than completing it and getting some birds on the ground.
With two young flocks on the go now, one just passing peak production they have got off to a fantastic start, we have achieved 90% hen housed production which is always great to hit. Being broiler breeders they don’t peak as high as the modern day laying bird, so getting to 90% is a strong start for a flock. The key thing now is that we work up to a 90% hatch rate to convert the eggs into chicks, this relies on careful egg handling and accurate male selection, as well as everything running smoothly at P D Hooks hatchery at Dalton.
It has been a pleasure to be reappointed onto the NFU national poultry board again for this term, as an industry we have many challenges facing us, fairness in the supply chain, environmental challenges and labour shortages to name a few. I look forward to working with the new board to lobby government and retailers to work with instead of against, our fantastic sector.