Barn Spotlight: Country Hills Egg Farm
By Canadian Poultry Staff
Features Producers Poultry EquipmentProducers replace barn destroyed by fire with several enriched barns.
The Gilani family replaced a barn previously destroyed by a fire with several state-of-the-art enriched barns. Location
Delacour, Alta
Sector
Layers
The business
The Gilani family has farmed for 43 years and owns a diversified agri-business, including Westlock Eggs. Its newest project is several enriched barns at its Country Hills Egg Farm, where a devastating fire occurred a couple of years ago. When at full capacity, it will house 100,000 layers and associated pullets, with eggs marketed through Sparks Eggs to local retailers and wholesalers throughout the region.
The need
The Gilanis had three main goals with these barns. “We wanted to expand to accommodate the growing demand for eggs in Alberta,” managing director Muneer Gilani says. “We also wanted to employ world-class technology in animal welfare, staff safety, odor mitigation and egg handling and ensure we better manage our carbon footprint, in part by locating close to markets to minimize trucking.”
Each barn has dual manure driers to reduce ammonia and odour on manure belts.
The barn
The enriched barns (each 25,000 square feet with two-tiers) are constructed with only cement and steel to prevent future fires and pest harbourage. Egg gathering and palletizing is fully automated. Each barn can store manure for over nine months as needed, and has dual manure driers to reduce ammonia (and odour) on manure belts. The barns are heated with high-efficiency low-cost hot water boilers. “LED tube lights provide even lighting at every level,” Gilani says, “and can blend the red/white spectrum to optimize hen comfort.”
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