Barn Spotlight: Kamlah Farms
By Brett Ruffell
Features ProducersKamlah Farms transformed their hatching egg operation with new state-of-the-art facilities, automating egg collection and revolutionizing efficiency.
The new Prinzen Egg Packers have shaved almost four hours a day off of the egg collection process while allowing the Kamlahs to cut three staffing positions. Location: Didsbury, Alta.
Sector: End-to-end chicken operation
The business
Kamlah Farms is an end-to-end chicken operation based in Didsbury, Alta. Owned and operated by Grejanka and Jeff Kamlah, with a team of support staff, the business includes hatcheries, hatching egg barns and broiler barns.
The need
The Kamlahs had 10 hatching egg barns that were a 45-minute drive away from their home farm. This created challenges around everything from feed deliveries to moving equipment to teamwork to their availability. What’s more, some of the barns dated back to the sixties. “Insulation in the old barns was sawdust shavings in the rafters,” Jeff notes. For these reasons, in 2020 they sold the old real estate where the hatching egg barns were located while retaining their quota. They then replaced those barns with four new ones on their home farm.
Having air inlets on top of the nests produces a nice, quiet air over them.
Floor-to-ceiling windows brighten the packing room with natural light.
The scratch area and manure pits are both sloped to allow for easy cleaning and drainage. The new barns are also much wider, which Jeff Kamlah says is better for mating.
A feed supplement comes in and does a 50 per cent wheat blend, resulting in significant cost savings.
The barn
Working with Eagle Builders and Penner Farm Services, the Kamlahs built four state-of-the-art facilities. They say the biggest difference-maker has been the new Prinzen Egg Packer. In the old barns, staff collected eggs by hand. Now, the process is automated. What used to take them six hours a day now takes just 2.5 hours. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a high school student doing eggs or our most experienced employee, the quality of the work is the same because we’re letting the machine do it,” Jeff says, adding that the system has enabled them to cut three staff positions.
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.
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