The first poultry farm in the United Kingdom that will be open to the public is scheduled for 2020.
The Northern Poultry Campus will be located in North Yorkshire, reports Yorkshire Business Daily. A key feature of the facility is transparency, offering the opportunity for visitors to find out about egg production, and how the hens are cared for. A café and gift shop will also be on the site for visitors.
In addition to it being a visitor attraction, the farm will be used to help in the education of students at local agricultural colleges, and aims to offer employment and work experience for the next generation of poultry farm workers.
The campus is part of Sally Farm, which is located at Helperby. It was purchased and opened late last year with capacity for up to 64,000 hens with access to 80 acres (32 hectares) of outdoor space.
Eggs from the farm will be supplied to Noble Foods and sold under the Happy Egg Co. brand. A 20-year lease to manage the unit has been agreed by free-range egg specialist, Wot-A-Hen, which was founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of Warrendale Farms.
The project is supported by Dutch-based poultry equipment firm, Vencomatic Group, and is receiving a finance package of GBP8.1 million (US$10.6 million at current exchange rates) from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
According to Vencomatic UK, Sally Farm was set up “to create a high-welfare free-range poultry farm that produces eggs efficiently and profitably in an environmentally friendly setting.” The Northern Poultry Campus is the second free-range unit to be built at Sally Farm.
Three years ago, the fifth egg farm using Vencomatic’s Rondeel housing system opened in The Netherlands. The system has received the highest rating for animal welfare, and some of the installations are open to the public.
Founded in the Netherlands in 1983, Vencomatic Group has developed products that meet the behavioral needs of all types of poultry, and selling worldwide through local branches and dealers. The company’s heat exchangers have been successfully installed at a cage-free layer farm in the U.S. Midwest, conserving heat while maintaining air quality.
Lloyds Bank was founded in 1765, and offers financial products and services to households, businesses and communities in Britain and overseas.
