May 10

More action regarding the AECL's attempt to impose their will upon honest hard-working consumer focussed farmers follows -

Another interesting editing job done on what I really want to say and what others think is appropriate. I wrote a letter to The Land last week following a report that I thought was the laziest bit of journalism I had seen for some time. I did get a response from the journalist concerned. He defended his laziness by saying he has been covering this debate for some time and that I shouldn't have been silent for so long seeing as I have had a relationship with The Land in the past and that he always includes comment from the likes of Lee McKosker or the RSPCA.

In my defence -

• I think my efforts should be aimed at consumers in the cities as they have the numbers to effect a change – by writing to The Land all I am doing is preaching to the converted or the uninterested.

• Since I have a “relationship” with The Land (I was featured in an article in their Small Farms supplement a couple of years ago) why didn't they ask my opinion about all this rubbish that the AECL is spewing up about how a free range chook only needs .5m2 to have a real life?

The following is a copy of the email I sent The Land last Friday night.

 

The Editor of  The Land,

(I do not expect you to publish this letter as it attacks the standard of journalism you are prepared to accept in your paper. I would like you to forward this to Andrew Marshall though as I'd like to think that some good will come of this.)

I want to nominate Andrew Marshall for the lazy journalist award for 2012.

I believe he has demonstrated his complete dedication to achieving this award by his column in The Land, May 3rd, 2012 -  "Feathers Fly over Chook Limits"

By giving space for just a few words from Lee McKosker of Humane Choice, arguably the only person that actually cares about animals and the environment, and writing verbatim whatever AECL CEO James Kellaway has told him, Andrew has managed to position himself even lower on the ladder than the average "The Land" staffer.

To enlighten those readers who only scan the pages of this paper to see what the latest price of in crop poisons are bringing I want to make a distinction between Lee McKosker and James Kellaway. I as an egg producer I pay James Kellaway's wages. I am forced to pay a levy on all day old chicks I buy from a commercial hatchery that goes to fund AECL. On the other hand I do not pay Lee McKosker one cent of money, but I do support her efforts 100% in spirit.

When Andrew Marshall says that AECL represents the majority of egg producers he is lying. AECL may represent producers that produce the majority of eggs sold in Australia. Thing is there is only a handful of those producers. Notice I have not called them farmers. They do not "farm" because they do not need anything more than a shed  in which to conduct their business. Just because egg producers pay a compulsory levy does not mean that AECL is their representative. AECL, to so many of these farmers (myself included) is simply the TAXMAN. The other more numerous group, and their numbers are growing every day, of egg "farmers" do in fact need soil on which to conduct their egg production. These farmers look at the land as a productive resource to be protected and enhanced by careful stewardship and proactive anticipation of issues such as manure production, baring of the earth's surface and the quality of life that their chooks will enjoy. These same land custodians appreciate the interaction of the elements that mother nature bestows upon them each day, they accept these challenges and adapt to them, whilst keeping in mind all the while that the quality of the eggs produced in such a natural environment will only be as good as their management skills. Lee McKosker represents these egg farmers far more than James Kellaway will ever do.

I would not normally take the time to write a letter to The Land as the people I want to engage with are the marooned consumers that live in the cities that are looking for answers that are not being provided by conventional intensive agricultural producers such as housed egg and pork factories. I have had some measure of success I feel in this pursuit. Having read this article perhaps the real target should be rural journalists. As they say "charity starts at home."

Mark Killen

Papanui Open Range Eggs

Papanui

Merriwa

The next part is what The Land published as my letter today.

I refer to “Feathers Fly Over Chook Limits”(The Land, May 3) in which Andrew Marshall gives just a few words of space to Lee McKosker of Humane Choice, arguably the only person that actually cares about animals and the environment, and apparently writes whatever Australian Egg Corporation Limited ( AECL) chief executive officer James Kellaway has told him.

 

I want to make a distinction between Lee McKosker and James Kellaway.

As an egg producer I pay James Kellaway's wages.

On the other hand I do not pay Lee McKosker one cent of money, but I do support her efforts 100% in spirit.

AECL may represent producers that produce the majority of eggs sold in Australia, but there are only a handful of those producers.

Notice I have not called them farmers. They do not "farm" because they do not need anything more than a shed in which to conduct their business.

Just because egg producers pay a compulsory levy does not mean that AECL is their representative.

To so many of these farmers (myself included), AECL is simply the taxman.

The other more numerous group - and its numbers are growing every day - of egg "farmers" needs soil on which to conduct egg production.

These farmers look at the land as a productive resource to be protected and enhanced by careful stewardship and proactive anticipation of issues such as manure production, baring of the earth's surface and the quality of life that their chooks will enjoy.

These same land custodians appreciate the interaction of the elements that mother nature bestows, they accept these challenges and adapt to them, keeping in mind that the quality of the eggs produced in a natural environment will only be as good as their management skills.

Lee McKosker represents these egg farmers far more than James Kellaway will ever do.

MARK KILLEN

Papanui Open Range Eggs

“Papanui”
Merriwa

There has been so much editing and words/sentences have been added to my letter that I could not be bothered to point out the changes. If you are interested you will see the changes. The main points that are missed are -

• that critisism of the journalist is not printed nor is the comment about what I think the average reader of The Land looks for when they pick up the paper.

• that I am more interested in talking to city consumers as they are the ones that are crying out for some honesty in our egg production systems

• that rural journalists need to be better informed and perhaps I should help

In fairness The Land hasn't done such a bad job except for the economy of words has led to some confusion of what I was saying, which was quite clear in the original.

This debate is of the utmost importance to real free range egg producers and indeed to other farmers who provide the best quality of life for the animals under their care.

Big business has an unfair advantage when it comes to doing a “job” on metropolitan based journalists. They have the backing of politicians in both the Labor and Liberal/National parties. The lone voices from Greens members of parliament such as John Kaye unfortunately carry no weight with either journalists nor farmers due to the past conduct of various Greens members.

The bigger picture is even more grim when it comes to looking at the actions of the present NSW Government. Prior to the elections the conservatives said they would put a stop to the rampant mining of fertile agricultural soils and in particular the emerging coal seam gas (CSG) miners. We now know the Liberal and National party representatives are liars. They are to be despised by any thinking person.

CSG mining has the potential to destroy rangeland farming worldwide. Contamination of groundwater with carcinogenic chemicals in the “fracking” of aquifers to release gas that we do not even need in Australia (it is to be exported) and destruction of the very lifeblood of farms such as ours – underground water – is treason.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just concentrate on producing the best eggs available in Australia??!

 

May 8

Lots has happened since the last news update including the fact that some rain would not go astray at the moment.

We were featured in Donna Hay Magazine (current issue) with lovely photos of the chooks this link takes you to her facebook page where there are some pics.

Also in the Weekend Australian we were featured in the

"Meet the Producer" section on A Plus, here is a pdf of the article.

Winter is not far away, where does the time go?

St Joseph's School Aberdeen is coming tomorrow for an excursion for the Agriculture Class. Looks like perfect weather for it.

The 2 chooks/m2 is not going away. AECL is determined to have it's way and the Minister for Agriculture in NSW Katrina Hodgkinson is proving to be completely spineless or should that read useless? I wrote to her as has at least one other about this issue but she just flicked it to NSW Food Safety Authority. It has nothing to do with food safety. This is about honesty and treating consumers with the respect they deserve. From the behaviour of the two parties mentioned above I conclude that they are contemptuous of shoppers in NSW.

February 3

The news is it has rained again which should help to get rid of the extreme humidity we’ve been sweating in for the last week or two.

The new chooks are starting to pump out some eggs, they were a bit slow to get going but seem to have the idea now – don’t ask how we train them to lay, you do not want to know………… just kidding!

Recently we were featured in an industry publication called Eggstra! Eggstra!.

The edited version goes like this – 

Producer Profile

1/ Where is your farm located?  

Near Merriwa in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW, about three and a half hours drive north from Sydney.

2/When did you purchase your farm?

My father Richard bought it in 1964.

3/ How many chooks do you farm?

We have around 2,500 layers.

4/ What type of egg production do you run and why?

Open Range. We define Open Range as what a shopper thinks of when they buy “Free Range Eggs”. That is, chooks free to roam and graze pasture, moved regularly so they are not living in piles of manure. Chooks that have a full beak, in fact all their body parts intact as nature intended. Chooks that are protected from foxes and eagles by livestock guardian dogs. Chooks that can do whatever they like, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

5/ How many staff do you employ in your team?

Other than myself and wife Diana, we employ five part-time in our packing shed and one sales/deliveryman in Sydney. This is a labour intensive egg production system. We are providing jobs in rural NSW that are family friendly.

6/What do you enjoy most about the egg industry?

The fact that we as primary producers can have a direct relationship with the people that eat what we produce. We often get a phone call or email from new customers telling us how good the eggs were they just had and actually thanking us for producing them. That is as good as it gets in my book.

7/ What is the biggest challenge you face being in the industry now and how has this affected your business?

The challenge for all small “true free range” producers is to be able to differentiate their product in a supermarket dominated food retailing system. They need to have their voices heard.

Fortunately we chose to reject the “free range” label when we started out almost eleven years ago after I visited a “free range” farm and realised that what we were doing was vastly different. Open Range seemed a better term as nobody was using it at the time. Pastured is an equally or even better term. Maybe a combination of the two would work?

 

8/ What do you think is the most important message AECL should be promoting to egg consumers?

That there should be a new standard of egg production called Open Range Pastured. This is an extensive egg production system as opposed to an intensive one.

9/ What is your favourite egg dish?

Two Papanui Open Range Eggs poached in a little water in a fry-pan with a lid until the white is just firm, served onto 1 slice of toast spread with butter and Vegemite and sprinkled well with Tabasco sauce. I have it every morning for breakfast with a cup of black tea, nothing else.

10/ Have you attended an AECL Industry Forum?

No. Do you think I should?

This edited version came from my emailed response as per below –

 Producer Profile

1/ Where is your farm located?  

Near Merriwa in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW about 3.5 hours drive north of Sydney.

2/When did you purchase your farm?

My father Richard bought it in 1964.

3/ How many chooks do you farm?

We have around 2,500 layers.

4/ What type of egg production do you run and why?

Open Range. We define Open Range as what a shopper thinks of when they buy “Free Range Eggs”. That is, chooks free to roam and graze pasture, moved regularly so they are not living in piles of manure. Chooks that have a full beak, in fact all their body parts intact as nature intended. Chooks that are totally unrestrained by any man made structures including fences, walls and doors. Chooks that have roosts to use at night. Chooks that live their life with the seasons and day length unmanipulated by man. Chooks that are protected from foxes and eagles by livestock guardian dogs. Chooks that can do whatever they like, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our chooks are an important part of a whole farm cell grazing system based upon the daily feed requirements of our cattle herd. Cattle are moved to fresh pasture every one or two days, the chooks follow behind, enjoying the feast of bugs that are left behind by 300 to 400 cattle.

We run our chooks this way because there is a symbiotic effect between the cattle and the chooks. The chooks help to spread the cattle dung which keeps the flies from breeding and they in turn with their manure fertilise the grasses for the cattle to eat next time they come around. The cattle have mostly chewed and trampled the pasture to a height that suits the chooks. With typically 60 to 90 days between each grazing, the lifecycle of internal parasites is broken for the cattle and there is no manure to have to deal with from the chooks as it is all utilised by the pasture plants. We don't need to fertilise our cattle paddocks where the chooks have been.

Environmentally sustainable, animal friendly and community focussed, low fossil fuel input, high quality output nutrient dense food and family friendly farming along the lines of Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia, USA. Allan Savory, the father of time controlled grazing, has also influenced me greatly.

The by-product of this system is fantastic tasting eggs and loyal customers.

5/ How many staff do you employ in your team?

Other than myself and wife Diana, we employ five part-time in our packing shed and one sales/deliveryman in Sydney. We also take wwoofers who help out in the paddocks. This is a labour intensive egg production system. We are providing jobs in rural NSW that are family friendly.

6/What do you enjoy most about the egg industry?

The fact that we as primary producers can have a direct relationship with the people that eat what we produce. We often get a phone call or email from new customers telling us how good the eggs were they just had and actually thanking us for producing them. That is as good as it gets in my book. The fact that we have been able to show that there is a better way to run a commercial egg enterprise and that some people are happy to support us by paying the prices we need to charge to make it economically viable. There are very few such opportunities in agriculture in Australia today.

7/ What is the biggest challenge you face being in the industry now and how has this affected your business?

The recent moves by the biggest cage egg producers to muscle in on the “Free Range Egg” demand that was created by small operators such as ourselves. Producing eggs from a facility that has a concrete floor and automatic egg collection into a packing room and automatic feeding systems from chooks that have had their beaks and toes removed is not what the average shopper thinks of when they buy “Free Range” eggs. With the lower cost of production (in dollar terms, not in animal or environmental terms!) that these producers enjoy, we are seeing such eggs retailing at lower prices than our cost of production.

The challenge for all small “true free range” producers is to be able to differentiate their product in a supermarket dominated food retailing system. They need to have their voices heard.

Fortunately we chose to reject the “free range” label when we started out almost eleven years ago after I visited a “free range” farm and realised that what we were doing was vastly different. Open Range seemed a better term as nobody was using it at the time. Pastured is an equally or even better term. Maybe a combination of the two would work?

How this has affected our business is more difficult to quantify. Perhaps it is the future scenario of all the real free range producers going broke because AECL decided to take over the definition of “free range” to keep the large levy payers happy is more of the issue here.

So the challenge, that AECL can actually help producers such as us with, is to define a new term to distance us from the devalued term “free range”.

 

8/ What do you think is the most important message AECL should be promoting to egg consumers?

That there is a new standard of egg production called Open Range Pastured Eggs which involves chooks being moved to fresh pasture frequently, no body mutilations, using only natural light and no fences. In this system the main focus is on a healthy environment and animal welfare. This is an extensive egg production system as opposed to an intensive one. It requires lots of land and is suited to be an additional enterprise for a mixed farm and these eggs retail for a higher price.

9/ If you could dispel one misconception about the egg industry, what would it be?

That "free range" eggs that consumers buy in the supermarkets at low prices are not what they think they are. These eggs have a cost to the environment and animal welfare that informed shoppers may be unprepared to pay.

10/ What is your favourite egg dish?

Two Papanui Open Range Eggs poached in a little water in a fry-pan with a lid until the white is just firm, served onto 1 slice of toast spread with butter and Vegemite and sprinkled well with Tabasco sauce. I have it every morning for breakfast with a cup of black tea, nothing else.

11/ Have you attended an AECL Industry Forum?

No. Do you think I should?

 

The red text in the above is the text that was cut from my responses to the questions. Note that one question was removed completely! So you can see there was a fair amount of tinkering done! I said when asked to submit this that I thought they wouldn’t be game to publish what I said as it would offend the big producers that are labelling their eggs as free range  when in fact the type of production system they have is nothing like what the average shopper thinks of when buying “free range” eggs. Of course it was “in the interest of space available” that my responses were cut so heavily. On our facebook page there is a scanned image of the article and you can see the fat old bloke holding a chook – I’m sure the picture could have been made smaller to fit in more writing.