A young Aberdeenshire farmer told the Farming Scotland Conference about a unique split feeding system which had helped him win a national competition.
An engineer by training, Craig Grant had returned to the family farm near Mintlaw in 2008 after a decade travelling the world on business.
After helping set up a 12,000-bird laying unit on the family farm he had gained enough confidence to strike out on his own in the poultry world and by 2010 had built a 16,000-bird unit on his own account on a separate 25-acre site.
Through observation he began to realise his Lohmann layers had widely differing nutritional demands during the day.
“These birds work hard and they have to be fed properly,” he said.
“I could see that when they got out of their beds in the morning they needed a boost of protein and energy.
“They also needed extra soluble calcium to replace that taken out of their bodies to form the egg shells.
“In the afternoons their requirements could be met by a cheaper lower energy barley-based diet.
“I discovered they did best on 40% of ‘rocket fuel’ and 60% of the cheaper diet.”
Bringing his engineering talents into play it did not take long to devise a dual feed system allowing the experiment to start.
The results have been remarkably encouraging with bird liveweight improving and production increasing by around 4%.
Essentially this gives him an extra 20 eggs per bird and increased longevity.
Additionally the saving in feed costs over the 72,000 birds now on the farm amount to £8,000 per year.
Craig and his wife Claire have kept an eye open for every opportunity and winning the national competition brought him to the attention of Tesco.
The supermarket was keen to build up its local food credentials and offered the Grants the chance to develop their Aberdeenshire Choice Eggs brand which is now stocked in 15 north-east Tesco stores.
“We don’t do any packing ourselves though,” Craig said.
“Since we started we have had a great relationship with Farmlay at Strichen and they do a superb job of handling our eggs.”
The latest innovation for the Grants is the installation of an egg vending machine at a local garden centre.
Customers insert their money and make their choice of pack size.
This is believed to be the first such machine in Scotland.