Barn Spotlight: Burnbrae Farms

The business
Founded by the Hudson family in 1891, Burnbrae Farms has egg grading, breaking and farming operations in five provinces. Ownership is now in the sixth generation.

The strategy
Burnbrae recently wrapped up three years of construction on a new farm in Oxford Country. It is the largest solar-powered egg layer farm in Canada, producing more energy than it uses and sharing surplus power with an adjoining Burnbrae farm. It is part of the company’s mission to reduce greenhouse emissions by five per cent by 2020. The farm consists of four brand new barns: one pullet barn; one free-run layer barn; and two free-range layer barns.

The new farm includes a pullet barn, a free-run layer barn and two free-range layer barns.

The barn
The barns feature high-efficiency variable-frequency motors, LED lighting and modified tunnel ventilation systems to ensure they use as little electricity as possible. “On average, over 20 per cent of the energy produced is shared with the farm next door,” notes Sue Hudson, Burnbrae’s director of communications and digital marketing. The farm has a back-up generator and lithium battery storage for nighttime and cloudy daytime periods. “There is also a back-up propane hot water heat source that will be used if necessary,” Hudson explains. “All other sources of energy are supplied through the batteries powered by the solar panels.”.

Location: Oxford County, Ont
Sector: Layers

Barn Spotlight highlights new and renovated barns and hatcheries. Do you know of a good candidate to be featured? Let us know at poultry@annexweb.com.