Like to eat?
If so, you might as well appreciate the farmers. To that end, local residents had a chance Thursday, July 31 to see the newest farm addition in Edson Thursday, July 31, a 20,000 brown hen operation that will produce eggs, located at 35681 County Highway MM.
As with any such operation, meanwhile there are standards: the township standard, a humane standard, county standards and organic farm standards—all of which are very important to owner Vernon Zimmerman.
“The whole thing is legal,” he said of the egg farm operation that received its first birds Tuesday, August 5. The new egg barn measuring approximately 50 foot by 580 foot barn was built by Horst Construction of Withee, its foundations poured by ABE Concrete and Excavating of Stanley. The 4,010 amp barn service and wiring meanwhile was put in by Shrock Electric out of Augusta, the egg packer and other equipment installed by En-Ve Acres Ag Supply of Owen. All told the operation cost between $1.2 to $1.3 million.
Now home to 20,000 brown hens, the egg farm off County MM includes several biosecurity measures as well. Included in these are a controlled entry with log book for humans, shallow bleach pit that those entering the egg packing room must step in before proceeding further, and the use of special boots and coveralls for entering the chicken barn itself. The hens themselves are further protected from disease by vaccination, the barn cleared of manure three times a day. Manure is stored in a well ventilated area separate from the rest of the barn, ensuring it remains dry before final disposal. The pasture will be kept free of standing water, with fans in the barn keeping the hens comfortable on days spent inside. The hens themselves will come from Minneapolis, with each egg laying brood staying 16 months before being shipped out and replaced by pullets just starting to lay.
The hens will be kept comfortable during their stay at the new egg farm, with longer lighting hours used to send the signal that ‘summer’ is here and it’s time to lay. Once egg laying starts the lights will be kept lower to keep the birds comfortable. Food, water, and roosting perches are all provided for within the barn itself, with hens receiving a high protein ration to encourage good egg production. Hens will have free range of the barn grounds after laying eggs in the morning, with a 50 acre pasture waiting outside the pulley operated bird doors for good weather days.
So how do the hens know just where to lay eggs?
“The whole barn has no dark spots except here, and a hen instinctively wants to lay an egg in a dark spot,” Zimmerman said of the central nesting area with a ‘grass pad’ that slopes down to the conveyor belt leading out from the chicken area. Eggs will be collected once a day and moved by conveyor to the egg packer, a machine that automatically stacks them on a flats before moving these to a waiting pallet. Once full the pallet is moved by pallet jack to a refrigerated storage area, located just off the egg packing room.
Shipped out once a week, the eggs will then make their way to Muscoda, Wisconsin, where Fairfield Farms will process and integrate them into the larger egg market. The eggs themselves will be sold under many different labels, all from a common source.
“They call them pastured eggs,” Zimmerman said of the eggs produced from pastured-raised chickens. “The hens will be outside on any day that’s reasonably decent.”