CO2-neutral egg farm opens in the Netherlands

Kipster farm is the first to produce carbon neutral eggs in The Netherlands. Learn how it covers poultry welfare, sustainability and the environment.

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Photo by Mark Clements
Photo by Mark Clements

The first carbon-neutral eggs from what has been called the “most state-of-the-art layer farm in the world” are now on supermarket shelves.

With the first layers taking up residence in late September, the Kipster farm, near Venray, the Netherlands, took five months from groundbreaking to receiving birds and was four years in development, but its developers believe they have designed a model that is not only flexible and scalable, but also future proof.

The Kipster model has been developed around the needs and instincts of chickens, say its developers -- farmer Styn Claessens, poultry farming lecturer Ruud Zanders, environmental expert Maurits Groen, and communications strategist Olivier Wegloop. But it goes beyond this, and is carbon neutral, a net exporter of energy, has its own packing station, and offers consumers a way of connecting with nature.

Claessens, from a poultry-producing family, believes Kipster is welfare- and environmentally friendly, offers good working conditions and a reasonable income, and sees the model as being the future of egg farming.

This new design offers birds access to a fenced-off outdoor space, with plantings and tree stumps offering stimulation. And a similar environment has been created within the house. A full-height naturally illuminated atrium runs down the building’s center, and the indoor and outdoor areas can be fully cleaned, reducing disease pressure.

According to Marijke de Jong, program manager for the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals’ Beter Leven quality mark, among the welfare benefits offered by Kipster is that hens reared on the farm will be less stressed than those reared using more traditional methods, and so there will be less cannibalism.

Poultry welfare considerations were taken into account from the very start of the farm’s design phase and the facility is expected to be awarded three stars once officially reviewed for Beter Leven.

Environmental, sustainability considerations

While poultry welfare may be a core consideration, the Kipster design does not focus exclusively on welfare, and was also developed with the environment and sustainability in mind.

The roof is covered in solar panels and no fossil fuels are used on the site.

The farm works to an extremely low ammonia standard of approximately 0.025 kg per chicken and fine particle emissions are 90 percent lower than an average farm.

The farm sources feed locally and does not use ingredients that could be used for human consumption. It works with surplus foodstuffs from the local food industry, with waste product sourced from a local baked goods producer and transformed by a local feed mill.

The farm's eggs are packed on the farm and delivered directly, so reducing food miles, and appear on the shelf three days after lay. Rather than slaughtering male chicks, they are reared for meat on another farm

Unique or reproducible?

The Kipster concept may offer various welfare, sustainability and environmental benefits, but will it fire the imagination of other producers and spread, or simply be a nice one-off?

Its developers believe they have hit upon a concept that will prove to be popular with consumers and producers.

The design was four years in development, and various models and prototypes were scrutinized before hitting on the final model. Poultry welfare, sustainability and the environment may have been core to the group’s thinking, but the end result also had to be financially viable, and Kipster cannot be described as the cheapest way to produce eggs.

Commenting on the development phase, Olivier said: “You cannot make an omelete without breaking a few eggs.” He continued that old methods of producing were no longer and that egg producers now needed to work in new ways.

But change costs, and producing eggs on a Kipster concept farm is not cheap. Olivier went on to point to research that has found that consumers are prepared to pay up to 5 percent more for a better quality egg that has come from layers with a better quality of life.

This first Kipster farm has already found an outlet for its eggs and has a contract to supply supermarket chain Lidl. This will be an interesting test for whether the eggs prove popular with consumers as, unlike other supermarkets, which carry up to 35 different lines of eggs, Lidl only has four. One line is now the Kipster brand, which is sold in distinctive packaging, meaning consumer acceptance will be easy to evaluate. In addition, Lidl will stock meat products made from the spent hens.

Overseas interest

Interest in adopting the concept has been expressed by producers in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, and discussions have started on building at three to four more sites.

While the concept will remain the same, it can be scaled up. This first farm holds 24,000 birds, but its developers say farms could be built to hold 3,000 to 96,000.

Because the concept is emission neutral and its architecture designed to blend the building into local surroundings, it could, in theory, be built in a city center. While unlikely, this means Kipster farms can be built close to centers of consumption, so cutting down on food miles. Tree planting is integral to the design and silos are hidden from sight, which should help to overcome possible planning objections.

However, there is a further element that may help to win favor with local communities: The farm comes with an education center.

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