Barn Spotlight: Red Maple Farms
By Brett Ruffell
Features ProducersWhen the Hollingsworth family was looking to improve ventilation in their layer barn, they decided to replace it with a new enriched facility. Here's a look at what they built.
After 50 years in the same barn, the Hollingsworth family built a new facility with enriched cages that can house 20 per more birds to accommodate future growth. Location: Orono, Ont.
Sector: Layers
The business
The Hollingsworth family has been in the layer business for over 50 years. Terry and Wendy Hollingsworth took over the farm from Terry’s father in 1988. Today, they farm with their son Brandon, housing 12,000-bird flocks in one barn in the eastern edge of Durham Region.
The need
In recent years, the producers were considering ways to improve ventilation in their old barn. But then they had second thoughts. “When the old barn was 50 years plus, it wasn’t worth putting money into it,” Terry says. “And so, we decided to build a new barn with enriched cages to keep up with the times.” They chose enriched cages over a cage-free system because they felt it would deliver better air quality.
Terry Hollingsworth (left) works with his son Brandon (right) and wife Wendy (not pictured).
A new elevator system conveniently collects the eggs and brings them to the conveyer, which then transports the eggs to the packing room.
The new barn has dimmable LED lights hanging in the aisles and enriched cages from Hellmann.
The barn
Last year, they opened a new barn with 20 per cent greater capacity. They went with a Hellmann enriched system since they were already familiar with the company’s equipment from their previous barn. Terry has noticed a remarkable improvement in air quality. “With this new barn, a mask will last me probably a week before I have to change it,” he says. Another aspect of the new barn that’s different is they hung six-foot-tall dimmable LED tube lights. What’s also new is they now have an elevator system for the eggs. “We like that because we used to have a conveyer going up and down to each row,” Terry says. “Now, we don’t have to worry about that – it just sits in one place.”
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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