Mid Wales farmers return to eggs to boost business
With the uncertainty of Brexit looming and fluctuating lamb and beef prices, farmers are looking at other ways to make their living.
Farm diversification is happening all over the country, and one example of this is at Pen Y Derw farm in Forden, near Welshpool, which is home to Mark and Helen Williams.
The farm has 40 suckler cows and 900 ewes, and made a move to diversify into egg production in June 2017.
Planning permission was granted in 2015 for a poultry unit that houses 16,000 free range hens, with the eggs produced being sold to L J Fairburns & Son on the east coast of England.
The unit costs £600,000 to build, however Mr Williams said that due to a host of uncertainties in farming, they found diversification was the way forward to make a stable living.
He said: “Sheep and beef farming is very up and down and volatile market because of things such as TB and export markets.
“We have a lot of challenges thrown at us with sheep and beef farming and a lot of changes in the market with lamb prices.
“We don’t know what we will receive for lamb next week, next month or the next year.
“Whereas egg production looks like a more stable alternative.
“With eggs we know what price we will get, and if the price of chicken feed goes up, then the price we receive for eggs goes up.
“Every Friday we get a cheque for our egg production, and it is a much more stable way of farming.”
Currently five planning applications have been submitted to build chicken rearing units across Powys.
Farms in Llanfyllin, Llanymynech, Newtown, Llanidloes and Rhayader are all applying for permission for Powys County Council, which if granted, would see 150,000 chickens bred.
Richard Corbett, partner and planning consultant at Roger Parry and Partners, said cattle farmers are making the decision to diversify in response to Brexit.
Ahead of a visit from Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies on Friday, Mr Williams advised other farmers to look at diversifying with Brexit throwing up uncertainties in farming.
However he added chicken farming is not the only other way to make a farming living.
He said: “A lot of risk comes with building an egg production unit, there has to be a lot of investigation to do and there is the risk of bird flu, and the substantial cost of building one a unit.
“But despite it not being for everyone I would recommend it, it might not be in poultry, some farms might be more suited to tourism by having tents and caravans.
“I think Brexit has thrown huge amounts of uncertainty at us and all industries, and farmers need to look at other revenue streams.
“There is always uncertainty in farming and there is a real danger that we could be in for a very turbulent times in March 2019.
“My advice for farmers would be look at their business to see if they can weather the storm and look at diversifying options and changing their structure. It is early days for our enterprise but it is much more stable, and we get our cheque on a Friday which is a real bonus.
“But taking on a project like this you need to have a contract in place, we did and I wouldn’t have built the unit if there had not been a contract in place.”
