Barn Spotlight: Wardlaw’s Poultry Farm

Location: Cookstown, Ont.

Sector: Layers

The business
Wardlaw’s Poultry Farm has been producing eggs since 1999. They also expanded into supplying feed mills with ingredients. The farm is run by Keith and Valerie Wardlaw, their son Brian Wardlaw and barn manager Gideon Courtney.

The need
The Wardlaws’ barn was too small to accommodate their quota. What’s more, they had conventional cages and needed to install alternative housing to comply with the code of practice for layers. Thus, a few years ago they decided to build a new barn. But first they spent a year visiting a few dozen farms across Ontario to see what other producers were doing. They then took best practices from that research and applied them to their own new barn, which they started building in the fall of 2020 and opened last spring. 

The barn includes tunnel ventilation for a more comfortable environment during warmer months.

Their Metzler automated packer can accumulate enough stacks for an entire layer on a skid.

The barn
The producers installed an enriched system from Hellmann based on good reviews they heard from other farmers. They also liked Hellmann’s lift system for collecting eggs. While many systems use a fixed position conveyer, Hellmann’s includes a mobile conveyer that moves from tier to tier. In addition, they worked with Glass-Pac on installing tunnel ventilation to provide a more comfortable environment for their flocks during the summer. “When it’s the warmest weather, you actually see the chickens at the front of their cages, wings open feeling the breeze,” Brian Wardlaw says of the new barn’s tunnel system. 

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.