Stonegate

Ian and Yta Bachelor

Cullompton, Devon

Ian and Yta farm 82 acres of organic land producing soft fruit. They went into free range egg production 4 years ago with three mobile houses of 600 hens each.

Since then, the enterprise has grown to five houses as demand has grown for organic eggs produced to Soil Association standards. Over this period the Bachelors, as with most other producers, have seen an increase in both the number and requirements of audits on farm that is very demanding in terms of farm resources. Stonegate are able to assist all producers in the understanding and implementation of audit requirements on farm, to ensure producers meet and exceed the exacting standards of the Stonegate Manual as well as retailer and Lion Quality standards.

Ian is also keen to be participating in the Stonegate run scheme to introduce information technology systems to its producers. The scheme will aid communication of grading, egg quality and financial information from Stonegate to producers, via web based systems. It will allow the benchmarking of production and welfare information to enable rapid adoption of best practise. Stonegate are already running courses in IT adoption and advantages for producers.

Rosemary Morris

Knighton, Powys

Rosemary manages 22,000 free range hens in three fixed laying houses in the rolling Welsh borders for Sir Simon Gourlay, past president of the NFU.

Rosemary exudes the confidence gained from managing a well run unit where attention to detail and regard for the well being of the hens she looks after is everything. The results of this are good production results and hen welfare linked to a low cost of production from the large naturally ventilated steel framed hen houses. The size of the hen houses allows automatic farm packers to be used to collect the eggs onto trays – further reducing their cost of production.

Once they have produced the eggs Rosemary and Sir Simon rely on the efficient transport, grading and marketing of their free range eggs by Stonegate to give them a profitable enterprise that dovetails well into this 600 acre arable and beef farm.

Roger Shapland

Milverton, Devon

Roger farms a 250 acre mixed farm. In November 2003, Roger stocked four laying houses to supply free range eggs to Stonegate. He worked closely with Stonegate’s Field manager for West of England and Wales, Andy Lewis, and now has four thriving flocks all showing excellent physical production levels. Andy was able to advise on all aspects of setting up the units, from planning permission application to sourcing suppliers and guiding through the first few months of production.

Roger housed two flocks of hens in static units and two flocks in mobile units. The Stonegate forecasting systems allowed the packer and producer to have conversations about further expansion, and Roger is housing a further two flocks in mobile houses in June 2004.

Roger has also made good use of the Stonegate producer support programme, sending members of his team to rodent control and food hygiene courses run by Stonegate.