A Millet, Alta., egg producer has given up his fight with the Alberta Egg Producers Board over the number of chickens he can own without quota.
“We’re going to lay down and die. It doesn’t pay to fight this one any more,” said Arnold Donszelmann.
A Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled in July that Donszelmann must comply with regulations that require a quota if a farm has more than 300 hens per legal land location.
Donszelmann has 8,000 hens now, but at one time there were almost 17,000 hens on his farm. About 70 people owned the hens, which allowed Donszelmann to qualify under the 300-hen rule.
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“I still feel we were in the right in what we were doing,” said Donszelmann, who hasn’t been able to sell eggs off his farm since April, when Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials quarantined his farm for suspected salmonella contamination.
The 300 dozen eggs a day are fed to his pigs.
Donszelmann said he has spent more than $40,000 this year on legal fees to appeal an earlier ruling, which said he must comply with the egg board rules.
Since 1983, Donszelmann has had an agreement with his neighbors to raise eggs for them. Only in the last five years has he fought with the board to raise eggs without a quota.
“Our mandate is to ensure people comply with the regulations and 300 is the limit without a quota,” said Susan Gall, general manager of the Alberta Egg Producers Board.
Donszelmann said he doesn’t know how he will dispose of the final 8,000 hens.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the board are talking to a southern Alberta woman’s lawyers over what to do about overproduction of eggs.
Rosemary Giberson of Strathmore raises organic, free-range chickens. Like Donszelmann she has more than the 300-hen limit without a quota.
Giberson’s 700 hens produce 10 to 20 cases per week, which she sells to a Calgary health food store.
