Ranger Magazine

March 2019

The BFREPA Awards Dinner and Conference is now confirmed at the NEC, Birmingham on the 14th and 15th October. 

The new venue allows both events to be staged together with enough capacity for accommodation for those members attending both. We will announce details of tables and rooms in the coming weeks.

We have commissioned ADAS to prepare a report on Improving the Value and Sustainability of Laying Hen Manure, the results of which will be published at the Industry Seminar in the Cotswolds on the 23rd May. The report will cover spreading of manure on land and alternative uses of manure. The event will be made available to those not attending the seminar, and the details will be in the next available Ranger.

The seminar in the Cotswolds, for over 100 members, was sold out within days of being released. Those fortunate enough to subscribe to the event will receive their invitations over the next few weeks. 

February 2019

The speed in which the egg market turns is one that might surprise many new producers.

But this is a cyclical industry in which the fortunes of the egg producer are determined by feed, and the supply and demand for our eggs, as a result of egg consumption or farm expansion. The trouble is too many of the elements which determine our fortunes are out of our control.

The warning signs of this downturn were there for all to see. BFREPA have been banging the drum for some time, whilst ensuring members have had planning data and information on issues which affect the industry. Alarming numbers of applications to planning offices have eventually tipped the balance – forcing the price down.

January 2019

Rising inputs and lower egg prices are going to make 2019 a very challenging year for egg producers. I do worry that the supply and demand model in the egg industry is not working for the producer. 

We have falling egg prices during periods of over production but where are the balancing rising prices when supplies have been tight in the past? 

Our planning data, and the chick placing statistics shows that free range expansion has paused, but those projects are only dormant and will spring to life when there are signs that the market is returning to balance. 

I have been around long enough to remember previous periods of consolidation within the free range sector, when attention inevitably turns to production size, where smaller less commercially viable production give way to larger units.