Freeranger Eggs 3.57

Freeranger Eggs at Grantville near Phillip Island in South Gippsland, is proving that farm profitability doesn't have to come at the expense of the environment. The property covers about 80 hectares and we operate with a current stocking density of about 25 chickens per hectare and our hens are not beak t rimmed. Freeranger eggs is a low intensity, cost-effective enterprise that is demonstrating a commitment to protecting biodiversity in the region – as well as supplying local restaurants and consumers with top quality eggs.

Genuine free range egg production is a labour intensive business, with all eggs collected, sorted and packed by hand. Anne and Phil are Freeranger’s only human workers, but the eight Maremma dogs used to protect the hens are invaluable. “We couldn’t do this without them,” says Anne, explaining how, even with electrified net fencing surrounding the paddocks, foxes can get in and attack birds.
Being truly free range (the hens have 24 hour access to pasture with roosting and laying houses in each paddock), infrastructure on the property is minimal. Apart from the grading shed and cool room used for sorting and storing eggs, the main infrastructure is five or six electro-netted paddocks, nine mobile roosting houses, and solar units for fencing and lighting.
Chook numbers are kept low to avoid the problems that trouble large, intensive
operations. The farm chooses to run at a low socking density even though politicians have allowed egg producers with stocking densities of 10,000 hens per hectare to label their eggs as free range.run up to 20,000 hens per hectare to be classified as free range. This means that over 90% of eggs labelled as 'free range' are actually produced on intensive farms.