Business Rural North Spring 2021

4 | Forestry, free range chooks better mix Better Eggs chief executive Gareth van der Heyden with shareholder Paul van der Heyden planting trees at the agroforestry venture. Free range hens peck around the trees on the South Waikato forestry and poultry farm. Kim Newth A n innovative South Waikato forestry and poultry farm is walking the talk on sustain- ability and has its sights set on becoming one of New Zealand’s premium free range egg producers. Better Eggs Ltd spent years thinking about how to give their chooks the best possible lifestyle that would tick many of the boxes for animal welfare and enrichment, along with environmental steward- ship. Their 139-hectare property near Tokoroa, which opened in April with 20,000 hens, is nestled in the rolling hills of the South Waikato. Chickens share commodious, sunny hen housing and are free to roam idyllic pastures, rocky outcrops and tree- lined avenues. Poplar, oak and pine being planted on the property will eventually be harvested and milled. Following completion of the first hen house in late 2020, the next phase of construction will get underway this spring. Since opening, another 20,000 hens have joined the farm with the ultimate goal to have 320,000 laying hens in five years’ time. A combined forestry and free-range farm of this scale – and with sustainability, hen welfare and hen enrichmentas core priorities - is a ground breaking concept. Better Eggs’ chief executive Gareth van der Heyden says consumers have been quick to embrace the vision. “The feedback we’ve had so far is very positive. We believe we have got something pretty special and unique here. Hens are a jungle fowl originally and so our focus is on getting back to a more natu- ral environment so they can venture outside and peck around between the trees. We also wanted a safe and secure environment for them and spent three years doing our due diligence to ensure we could achieve that.” Hen house design for this venture reflects best practice from leading European and Australian free range farmers.Each house is 150m long and 25m wide with plenty of open space inside, big open ceilings and good natural light and ventilation. Continuous doors along the bottom of the house give unrestricted access during daylight hours. As soon as the sun goes down, lights in the house come on, attracting the hens back inside to their place of safety and security. An automated system RURAL PEOPLE » Better Eggs “The feedback we’ve had so far is very positive. We believe we have got something pretty special and unique here. Hens are a jungle fowl originally and so our focus is on getting back to a more natural environment so they can venture outside and peck around between the trees.” • to page 6 Supporting good health through good nutrition.. Proudly supporting Better Eggs 50 Central Park Dr, Henderson Auckland 0610 09 834 3783 info@imageholdings.co.nz | www.imageholdings.co.nz 12 Iversen Tce, Waltham Christchurch 8011 03 550 0754 Precision Nutrient Formulation