Jimmy and Cameron Smith were well-known for farming barley, wheat and beans in the fields of Kinross, Scotland when they made the decision to diversify into egg production.
With the advantage of being able to feed the hens the grains they produced on site, it was a smart move for the father and son team, and one that they don’t regret.
Jimmy remembers, “There’s a lot of pressure on first-generation farmers, and farming barley can be an onerous task. We had plenty of contacts in the egg industry, so we were open to the idea of getting some hens. To make life easier, we decided to feed them cereals from our own production, so we could work towards becoming self-sufficient.”
As the supplier of the number one free range hen housing system in the world, they called on Newquip to build their first unit back in 2020. It was the first 39,999 free range egg unit in the UK using Big Dutchman equipment. Fast forward four years, and Jimmy and Cameron were standing in a field of beans grown for their hens when the idea was floated around to add a second free range unit housing 32,000 birds.
Standing at 72,000 (minus one!) birds today, Jimmy is delighted with the installation and operation of the Big Dutchman Natura 284-21 system, supplied and installed by Newquip. He says, “Having had the experience of our first unit, we understood the benefits of choosing a system that is fully automatic. Auto-flushing plays an essential role for us, something that we didn’t use to our advantage in the past. We also appreciate the advancements in its design to suit the Scottish weather.”
What’s more, Jimmy praises the single egg belt feature, removing system eggs that would otherwise have to be taken off by hand. He adds, “Newquip were ahead of the installation date, which was fantastic for us. There were a few teething problems at first, but the response from Newquip was excellent. The addition of Jack Savage to the company’s Scottish sales team has been very helpful.”
Having grown from one to two units in a relatively short space of time, Jimmy has highlighted the importance of split feeding. He explains, “We selected to have dual augers from individual silos on the second unit to remove complexity and improve reliability. We are very happy with the result. When anyone asks me about building a hen shed, I always say that the only system they should consider is Big Dutchman.”