Urgent need for more freerange farms

 

Many egg farms have closed down in recent years from big producers with hundreds of thousands of hens to small freerange operators with a few hundred. Egg shortages in supermarkets have highlighted the problem and clearly shown the need for more freerange farms to be set up in each region. Clear consumer demand for free range eggs has generated a strong increase in the number of people wanting to start their own free range egg business.Ideally, every township should have n nearby egg producer to limit the food miles created by trucking eggs across the country to supermarket shelves.

A good starting point is reading our eBook on starting a free range farm. For details contact us through the website or by email.

Website for small scale freerange farms

 At long last,  Poultry Hub Australia has set up a website aimed at encouraging small scale freerange egg production. There has been nothing like this since the demise of the Freerange Farmers Association Inc. and the Freerange Egg and Poultry Association of Australia inc.The only  information source available has been our website Freeranger.com.au

small scale freerange poultry

Disease transmission between egg farms

 

Some people wonder why diseases like avian influenza are allowed to infect so many birds on different properties. Well there is no mystery about it! Politicians have allowed highly intensive poultry facilities to be established. As a result of high production, the businesses are required to sell huge volumes of eggs through supermarkets. In order to keep their contracts, producers must guarantee supply and the only way they can do that is to purchase eggs from other producers. They stamp the eggs at their packing station and pretend they are their own brand. The eggs are then trucked off to the supermarkets and sold to unsuspecting consumers. This transfer of eggs between properties is a vector for the transmission disease from property to property and most of them also share workers.

The things chickens do for us

 There's more to chickens than just eggs and white meat. It took a while for scientists to work out how to simulate a bird flying into an aircraft engine at high speed. Firing a chicken carcass into an engine has been a regular feature of aircraft safety tests since the 1940s, 'chicken guns' are specialised compressed-air cannons used to hurl chicken carcasses into jet engines and windscreens to ensure they can withstand bird strikes once airborne. The first known chicken gun was introduced in 1942 and could launch chickens at400 miles per hour (640km/h), Modern models versions have modular barrels to use various sizes of bird.

Freerange hens not to blame for Avian Influenza

 Claims by major egg producers that the current Victorian outbreaks of Avian Influenza had been caused by hens on freerange farms are false.The outbreaks around Lethbridge and Meredith have been on large, corporate businesses which cannot be compared with genuine freerange farms. The problem in one of overcrowding. Any disease spreads like wildfire when animals are in confined spaces. Political interference, allowing intensive producers with 10,000 hens per hectare to classify themselves as free range was simply absurd. An adult hen produces half a cubic metre of manure a year. Which means that 10,000 chickens produce a mountain of 5000 cubic metres on each hectare of land each year  - resulting in health risks as well as degrading soil health and waterways. Ohio State University says: "HPAI virus infection in poultry (H5 or H7 viruses) can cause disease that affects multiple internal organs resulting in a mortality rate of up to 100%, often within 48 hours. When H5 or H7 avian influenza outbreaks occur in poultry, infected flocks are typically depopulated or culled. The preferred method of stopping spread is to quarantine and screen flocks that are near or linked to the infected flock."

Beat the egg shortage

 Shortages of eggs on supermarket shelves is almost certain to become more severe in Victoria as currently hens at five major production facilities have been hit by outbreaks of Avian nfluenza.

The growing demand for freerange eggs can be met by people setting up their own farms. More genuine free range farms are needed to give consumers a real choice. Every township in the country should have a nearby egg farm instead of requiring eggs to be trucked across the country to a stupidmarket.

Our politicians changed the Australian free range standard to allow intensive producers to sell eggs with  misleading free-range labels. Egg cartons must display stocking densities, but as there’s no actual requirement for the chickens to go outside, the labels are meaningless. Changes to the freerange definition protects big producers from prosecution under Australian Consumer Law.The ACCC had been so successful with various prosecutions in the Federal Court that corporate egg producers demanded protection.

High stocking densities are more stressful for the chicken. Hens display some aggressive behaviours such as pecking, bullying and even cannibalism as they fight it out to maintain their hierarchy in cramped conditions, making way for justifications for widespread beak-trimming and de-beaking.10,000 hens per hectare is not sustainable or responsible farming.A laying hen produces half a cubic metre of manure a year. So, a stocking density of 10,000 hens per hectare means that farmers who follow that advice see their land covered with 5000 cubic metres of manure per hectare every year. High levels of ammonia, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in hen manure can destroy soil health and leach into the ground, leading to contamination of waterways. labelling requirements and standards for free range egg production introduced by poiticians in 2018 destroyed any remaining consumer confidence in the Australian egg industry.

The standard allowed intensive production systems to be classified as free range and protects intensive producers from prosecution under Australian Consumer Law. We still have an eBook available to help set up your own genuine freerange egg farm. Full details are on our website

Scammers make $millions from gullible people

 

Financial scammers are raking in millions of dollars from gullible individuals – otherwise the scams wouldn’t continue - Here’s a couple of examples we received this week

Woodforest National Bank
Reply-To: woodforestnationalbnk.cathleen@gmail.com
BCC
Message body
Wood-forest National Bank
ADDRESS:45485 Miramar Way, California, MD 20619, USA

The Wood-Forest National Bank California controlling department has
issued a security transfer CODE which the
Authentication section code of this bank concludes the verification of
your file. After going through all the documents of claim received by
this department with justification and verification from the global
strategy United States we are completely satisfied and you have been
confirmed.

The Wood-Forest National Bank has received the sum of $17.5 Million
Dollars from United Nations which has been assigned for you as the
Compensation of the past scam victims you have encountered in the past
and this payment is expected to be in your Account before 3 days.

Considering the volume of your payment, it is right for us to seek for
the approval of some money regulatory Boards here in United States
before we can carry out the Transfer of an amount of such magnitude to
anybody, otherwise any such transfer will be stopped by the
Authorities of Wood-Forest National Bank, and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), Approval Documents from the concerned Authorities
here in United States are needed to avoid stoppage once the Transfer
is carried out and for that reason, you are required to pay the Sum of $100.00

In a separate scam attempt it was claimed that by sending $100.00 I would receive $12 billion US dollars from the Federal Reserve Bank, transferred from four different banks; Royal Bank Of Canada (RBC), Bank of America and Nat west bank London. Millions of emails like this are are sent every week. If only a fraction of 1% of people respond, it's a very lucrative business.