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Eggs - The Lakes, UK

Executive Summary

Key areas of good practice:


Inputs & Operations

  • Tree planting promotes the laying birds to range, encouraging more natural behaviour and less welfare issues. Tree planting also aids the environment by using and storing carbon.
  • The buildings used and recommended by The Lakes for the laying birds are simple to construct and are designed to use the minimum of electricity once operational. They are designed to be multi-purpose, so a future change to the original use of the building would not be a major problem.
  • All use of medicines throughout the company is therapeutic. No prophylactic use of medicines is undertaken and even wormers are only used after worm sampling has identified the need to do so.


Management

  • All supplier farms have a specific biodiversity management plan created by independent advisers, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group. All farms must be registered under the DEFRA-funded Entry Level Scheme (ELS), encouraging farmers to deliver simple yet effective environmental management.
  • All the eggs are produced under the British Egg Industry Council standards and all producers farms are approved under RSPCA’s Freedom Foods Scheme and the British Egg Industry Council standards.
  • Producer group meetings are conducted with training provided and benchmarking data supplied.


Community

  • £4 million has been put into the local economy during the last year, through wages, local contracts and spending.
  • After the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 the area was badly affected and traditional agricultural enterprises were economically unviable. The Lakes has provided local farms with a profitable diversification venture.
  • At present there are 38 local family farms (contract egg producers) which supply free-range eggs to The Lakes.
  • New farms are offered a minimum 14-month contract with limitless free help and advice offered by David and his management team.

 

 

Additional areas of good practice:


Staff

  • All staff are paid a minimum of 10% above the minimum wage.
  • Staff receive training and are encouraged to undertake more duties and responsibilities which is then reflected in their pay.
  • The business has provided local employment for 55 people, both at the packing station and on the farm.

 

Outputs

  • The laying units are achieving lower mortality rates than the documented breed average.
  • Consistently higher average egg yields are being achieved over the UK standard.