Proud of their eggs

Taranaki's sole egg producers are in the process of converting their sheds so their hens can roam. Sue O'Dowd reports.

They are Taranaki proud, and the last remaining commercial producer of eggs in the province.

Murray and Barbara Gibbins, of Kaimata, near Inglewood, produce 5000 dozen eggs a week for sale in New World supermarkets at Waitara, Merrilands and New Plymouth, Inglewood's Shoprite, Four Square stores from Urenui to Opunake, Supervalue at Bell Block, bakeries, dairies and distributors.

Two thousand dozen of those eggs are laid by their 4500 free-to- roam hens.

The farm was established by Mr Gibbins' father, Fred, who bought a small poultry farm with 400 hens on the floor - not in cages - after he returned home to Kaimata from World War II.

He grew the business and expanded the number of hens to 17,000 when cages were introduced in the 1970s.

Armed with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree, Murray joined the business in 1979. With his father, he grew it to a peak of 28,000 hens, before buying it with Barbara in 1987, just before the industry was deregulated.

Deregulation changed the industry. "The big farms came into Taranaki from outside and dumped their eggs here," Mr Gibbins said.

Nevertheless, they thought the future for their industry was bright, so they built a shed for 10,000 hens, but more change and challenges lay ahead.

In 1999, the Poultrymen's Co- operative (PCL), with about 15 members in Taranaki, closed its New Plymouth grading and packing plant.

So Mr Gibbins bought some of the PCL plant and built his own packing shed, where he established a hi-tech grading and packing operation that can process 1800 dozen eggs an hour.

Eggs move on a conveyor through a washer to a grading booth, where any cracked, bloody or rotten ones are removed before the rest are sorted and sized for packing.

After PCL's withdrawal, Mr and Mrs Gibbins, trading as Buckeye Products, began to market their own eggs, which carry a distinctive "Taranaki laid" label on the carton. "I have a good range of customers," he says.

New World at Merrilands in New Plymouth and at Waitara stock his eggs exclusively because, they tell him, they want a Taranaki presence in their stores. Merrilands New World owner John Gray says his business has had a long-standing relationship with Mr and Mrs Gibbins.

"He's stood by us and looked after us and he does a good job. He's local and that's really important to us, so we've no reason to go elsewhere," he says.

Mr Gibbins talks of his pride in his operation. "I'm proud that we're still here - and proud to be supplying eggs to Taranaki," "We have many loyal buyers who want to buy Taranaki-laid [eggs].

"We have a good product, with nice orange yolks. Our Taranaki- laid eggs are unique. We pride ourselves on our good service.

"If there's a problem, ring me.

"I'm the boss and I'll fix it."

Poultry farming is a seven-days- a-week, 52-weeks-a-year family business. Mrs Gibbins helps out, as do their three children when they are not studying.

The couple also have seven part- time employees.

Today the couple have 15,000 brown hens, which consume about 16 tonnes of a compound grain mix of maize, barley, soyameal and minerals a week. It's stored in silos on the property and fed to the hens by an on-demand automated feed system.

They buy one-day-old chicks in batches of 3000 from hatcheries at Lepperton and in Auckland and rear them themselves.

Their beaks are already treated with lasers, so they can peck without hurting each other or their handlers when the latter are collecting eggs.

"All chooks today are brown. They were white when I was a kid," Mr Gibbins says.

The market perception is that brown eggs are healthier.

Eggs are collected every day.

"We touch every egg and clean them by hand, and we hardly break any."

The business faces competition in Taranaki from Dunedin's Mainland Poultry, which has 800,000 of New Zealand's four million laying hens, and other producers in the lower North Island.

"I've had to make changes to keep up with the competition," Mr Gibbins says.

The increased level of competition has not been their only challenge.

The couple have also had to face up to rising resistance from consumers to buying eggs laid by caged hens.

So four years ago, they began to convert their operation to the production of eggs from hens that are free to roam.

Living on the shed floor, free-to- roam hens can run and fly, flap and stretch, scratch and take dust baths. They lay their eggs in darkened nest boxes.

"When they lay their eggs, it's quite personal to them and they like to hide away," says Mr Gibbins, who has found he needs to farm them more than caged hens. "You have to keep an eye on them."

Sometimes they gang up and pick up on a hen, which has to be rescued and relocated. He says the free-to-roam hens seem happier and healthier than those in cages, have better feathers and like to socialise.

They gather around when Mr Gibbins walks into their shed and do not seem to mind being handled.

A shed for 20,000 caged hens can house only 4000 free-to-roam hens, which eat more and lay fewer eggs, so costs are higher.

"The sales have gone well, but not everyone wants to pay the extra," he said.

Nevertheless, he plans to phase out caged hens within five years.

The hens are kept until they are about 82 weeks old, when they are killed, removed from the property and turned into compost by Brixton fertiliser operation Revital Fertilisers.

"I'm pleased that they go back into the land," Mr Gibbins says.

Manure from his sheds also goes to Revital Fertilisers or to his brother's farm.

Mrs Gibbins says as egg producers, the couple feel isolated, because it is an industry where operators tend not to mix with their competitors.

Source: Taranaki Daily News