All new chicken barns in Manitoba will use open housing after Jan. 1, 2015, Manitoba Egg Farmers has announced.
The move is expected to increase the cost of building barns, but per-egg production costs should be the same.
“I find very few differences in the birds’ productivity, livability, feed conversion, water consumption,” said farmer Kurt Siemens, whose flock is already 25 percent converted to “enriched” or “furnished” cages.
“It’s all almost identical.”
The association announced the moratorium on new battery cage barns Sept. 13. No mandatory phase-out date is included in the policy, which will allow existing barns to continue operating until they need to be replaced.
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Farmers will be able to use a variety of different systems in new barns, including free range and organic systems. However, the main commercial producers will probably use enriched cage systems, which put laying hens together in a cage that contains a nesting area, perches and nail filing bars, with a bigger per-bird space allotment.
Farmers who build new barns with enriched systems receive a special four cents per dozen levy rebate to ease the cost of installing them. Eggs from open-housed hens aren’t offered in stores at higher prices.
“Currently there is nothing at retail that gives them that premium,” said Manitoba Egg Producers communications director Brenda Bazylewski.
Siemens said it costs 20 to 25 percent more to build barns with enriched cages, so the levy rebate helps lessen the impact.
“It’s set up for early adopters just to get them going,” said Siemens.
Fifteen Manitoba producers comprising 11 percent of provincial production now use open systems. The province’s supply management system produces 59 million dozen eggs per year from 2.3 million hens.
Manitoba Egg Producers represents farmers who operate within the supply management system. Small producers are allowed to operate outside of supply management, but are limited in their production.
Farmer Ed Kleinsasser said Manitoba egg producers accept that battery cages are becoming unacceptable with consumer concerns about animal welfare, so there has been little opposition within egg circles to making the transition.
However, a forced conversion date isn’t planned because farmers with new barns can’t afford to retrofit barns they have recently built using old systems.
“I’m not sure you could do it at 10 years,” said Kleinsasser.
“It just wouldn’t make business sense to do that kind of thing.”
