Rural difficulties caused by incompetent bureaucrats, Councillors and Greenies

 It’s hard enough making a living on the land, but its made even more difficult when dealing with incompetent Shire Councillors and staff together with a handful of vocal greenies who are unable to articulate their specific problems.

Bass Coast Shire Council is trying to bully State Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny to expedite approval of draft amendment C181 as a planning overlay which it claims will protect large areas of native vegetation around Western Port.

The areas in question are already protected from the threat of sand extraction by the Regional Sand Extraction strategy Lang Lang to Grantville. Gazetted in 1996. Please contact your local Councillor and demand that the Shire meets its legal obligations. Any of you who support the fringe individuals calling themselves Save Westernport Woodlands, call them and suggest they read the sand extraction strategy before they create a wasteland. The Freeranger Eggs farm is part of the wildlife corridor identified in the Sand Strategy and is a vital link between the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve and Bass River.

Egg farmers' lament

 The start of winter always reminds us of the major difficulty faced by free range egg farmers. The only way to keep up constant egg production is to have hens locked in climate controlled sheds with full lighting. Genuine free range farming of hens makes it difficult to maintain egg supplies for regular customers and impossible to have spare eggs for occasional buyers who suddenly decide they want to try real free range eggs laid on farms where hens are always free to roam on pasture and only go into sheds to lay their eggs in nest boxes and for protection from predators at night when it's dark..

Egg cartons delivered

 A local friend delivered 1200 egg cartons yesterday after picking them up in Dandenong, They should last us a while before we need to restock. The days have gone when we trucked  cartons on pallets and kept a year’s supply in the shed.  Now, age and health issues have slowed us down so we have cut flock numbers and it’s not economic to buy large quantities. We still print our labels on the farm.

Red tape, taxes and charges kill many enterprises

 Government charges and red tape are killing many operations, large and small. The combination of local Government rates. Land tax and endless compulsory levies  cause many to give up and shut their doors.

Egg production in Australia - More free range farms needed

 A published overview of the Australian egg industry by Food Standards Australia New Zealand says that Egg production initially started here when producers began going beyond just providing for the immediate family and commenced supplying local areas. Over time, increasing flock sizes were needed to meet demand from growing urbanisation in Australia . This has now grown into an industry producing 6.98 billion eggs with a gross production value of approximately $1.37 billion in the 2023-24 financial year (Australian Eggs 2024). Sadly there are only one or two producers such as us at Freeranger Eggs, satisfying local demand for genuine low density free range eggs. There needs to be at least one close to every township.

June 7 - Phil Westwood's birthday and World Food Safety Day

 

Phil Westwood has made it to 80 today despite a few health challenges ( a severe stroke, atrial fibrillation, edema and a bout ofCellulitis.) That limited his activities around the farm over the past 10 years or so leaving Anne to do all the work. Recently there have been disappointments with local Bass Coast Shire Councillors and a few rabid individuals masquerading as environmentalists trying to overturn a landmark achievement in the Regional Sand Extraction Strategy Lang Lang to Grantville which protected vital native vegetation and identified key biolinks for the wildlife corridor.

The Grantville community, led by Anne and Phil lobbied the Victorian Government to restrict the destruction of native vegetation, wildlife habitat and groundwater resources. The actions from Grantville Action Group Inc. resulted in The Regional Sand Extraction Strategy, Lang Lang to Grantville which protected the natural environmental values by ensuring that cumulative impacts were considered as part of landscape-scale planning rather than allowing ad hoc decisions. The State Government approved the Strategy in 1996. However Shire Councillors and Save Westernport Woodlands individuals don’t like the strategy and are determined to destroy it.

What we do at Freeranger Eggs

 Welcome to Freeranger Eggs - the home of freerange eggs in Stanley Road, Grantville Victoria. Advancing age and health problems which culminated in a stroke and atrial fibrilation for Phil basically leaves Anne to farm on her own.  The workload has been cut down by reducing to one flock of around 200 ISA Browns. An eBook is available demonstrating how our 200 acre farm was run when we had over 1000 birds Our eBook shows how to set up your own free range farm business. The huge number of shameless people around pretending that the eggs they sell are 'free range' makes it almost impossible for Australian consumers to make informed decisions. Ministers for Consumer Affairs and the Federal Minister for Small business  made the decision even more complex as their absurd 10,000 hens per hectare standard for 'free range' eggs simply ensures that NO eggs sold in major supermarkets are actually free range. Australia's mindless labelling laws, are an added problem for consumers and farmers. So if you want free range eggs, don't go to a supermarket.  Ignore logos and accreditation claims - they are usually meaningless as accreditation processes have become a joke.  Most eggs labelled as free range are from intensive production systems wth high stocking densities and  beak-trimmed birds- even the biggest corporate producers resort to buying eggs from other sources to ensure sufficient numbers to meet their contracts with supermarkets.  Freeranger Eggs was one of very few genuine free range farms in the country. We had  an outdoor stocking density of 15 - 40 hens per hectare and we only package eggs laid on our farm. The number of hens on our 200 acre ( 80 hectare) property varied but we ran a maximum of 1000, depending on the time of year and demand. The farm is registered with Agriculture Victoria. The State Government changed the rules and Councils no longer conduct farm inspections. As a low density free range farm, we are part of a boutique industry with a niche market. We operate with  a comprehensive food safety and quality assurance program and we exceed  the standards of every accreditation body in Australia.

Chickens' interactions with humans

 An article in the World Poultry Science Journal from research in France reports a review of the abilities of chickens to interact with humans. Evidence suggests that chickens are far from passive or purely instinct-driven. Instead, they exhibit rich and nuanced behavioural responses to visual, tactile and auditory human cues. Chickens can discriminate between individual humans, are sensitive to human attentional states, and can even use human social cues to guide their decision-making. Farmers who interact in a calm and positive manner with individual chickens are shown to improve wellbeing across the entire flock. Regular positive human contact reduces stress in chickens, improves immune function and egg production.

The researchers concluded that chickens learn about humans by observing their flock mates.