Research into 'free range' meaning

Research conducted by Hannah Larsen and Dr Jean-Loup Rault, of Melbourne University has been helping to define what 'free range' means. Government standards such as 'meaningful and regular access to the outdoors' and a stocking density of 10,000 hens per hectare are completely inadequate and demonstrate how Ministers are corrupted by big business with intensive, industrial-scale production methods - that's not farming. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has better guidelines, such as 'hens are able to move about freely on an open range on most days.The research by Melbourne University, funded by the Australian Egg Corporation Ltd was designed to demonstrate how many hens in a flock actually use the range area. The findings are published on the AECL website. See a summary here: https://www.aecl.org/assets/www.aecl.org/outputs/1UM121-Summary.pdf

Sunlight affects egg quality

Free range eggs are a good source of dietary vitamin D, each egg from hens that spend most of the day outdoors contains about 10% of the required daily value . The vitamin D is concentrated in the yolk. along with most other nutrients such as folic acid. Research in Britain has indicated that when hens are exposed to direct sunlight, they tend to lay paler shelled eggs. All eggs are initially white, and shell colour is the result of the pigments called porphyrins being deposited while the eggs are in the process of formation. In the case of the Rhode Island Red, the brown pigment,derived from haemoglobin in the blood, is what gives the shell its brown colour. Araucana hens produce a pigment called oocyanin, which is a product of bile formation, and results in blue or bluish-green shelled eggs. There is no relationship between egg quality and shell colour. Nutritionally they are the same, but it's always surprising how many people still think that brown eggs come from free-range hens while white ones come from caged hens!The nutritional difference is a result of feed and free access to pasture, grubs and insects

Drilling starts on sand extraction site near Bass River

The peace and tranquility of life on the Freeranger farm, next to the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve in West Gippsland seems set to be disrupted. A drilling rig appeared on a property next to us in Stanley Road on Tuesday afternoon. The site was purchased some years ago by a sand extraction company and permits were issued on the basis that there was an urgent need for additional sand resources to meet demand in Melbourne. one permit condition was that their extraction must not adversely impact on water flows through to the Bass River. Presumably the company is drilling in February in an effort to demonstrate that groundwater is limited. They are drilling on part of the site most likely to reveal no groundwater.