Innovations: Ferme Avicole

Sector
Layers, egg production

Location
Rivière-Héva, Que.
 
Production
Maurice Richard and his sons Jean-Philippe and Alexandre operate an enriched 70,000-bird layer operation over four barns.

Equipment specs
Three barns have enriched systems from Farmer Automatic, with the fourth being converted next year. All the barns are heated with pellet stoves, which heat water running through the barns’ concrete floors. Wood pellets are currently being used, but in the future the Richards plan to make pellets from the farm’s crop straw and fast-growing planted trees. The barns’ ventilation system is used to dry chicken manure, which is piled in grain silos between the barns. The dried manure is crushed and pelleted, then spread on the farm’s fields or sold.

On sustainability
“Sustainability is the key to the future,” Alexandre says. “There are so many ways to use everything we can. This not only makes us more sustainable, but we are also more autonomous and financially better off. My grandfather, although he passed on when I was young, was the founder of the farm and left to us the great legacy we have now. With my father always leaving a lot of room for me and my brother to try new things, we are trying to make the best of it.”

The farm has two canola presses, with all the meal and oil incorporated into layer feed.