Egg farmers to build new research facility

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/04/2022 (1214 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Egg Farmers and the University of Manitoba layer research facility at Glenlea is still on the drawing board, but could well be under construction before the end of the year.

Manitoba Egg Famers chair Catherine Kroeker-Klassen said the project has reached the stage of drawing up blueprints and working out project financing, and final details of what the layer research building will look like.

The provincial and federal governments will be contributing $1.5 million towards the multi-million dollar research facility and Manitoba Egg Farmers will cover the balance of the cost.

Once completed, the Manitoba Egg Farmers Layer Research Centre will be turned over to the University of Manitoba.

The building will go up near the Manitoba Dairy Farmers Discovery Centre as part of the complex at Glenlea, which includes the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, where a number of exhibits are currently being expanded and upgraded.

The layer research centre will not only be an upgrade of what there is at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry Campus now, but will provide additional research capabilities as well. At the same time, most of the centre will be open to the public as well.

Last October, while making the $1.5 million funding announcement on World Egg Day, Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler said the U of M currently operates the only egg research facility in Manitoba, and it needs significant upgrades.

“The proposed new facility will advance and enhance research on modern egg production techniques and technologies.”

The Manitoba Egg Farmers Layer Research Centre will help ensure Manitoba is home to world-class research on egg production and development, the then-minister of agriculture said.

Manitoba Egg Farmers will also partner on the cost of construction, and the U of M will continue to own and operate the facility once it is completed.

Manitoba Egg Farmers board chair Catherine Kroeker-Klassen says their goal is to show the public what producers are doing.

“It’s important to us that we show consumers how eggs are produced and how hens are housed. This will be the most modern egg and layer research, education and training facility in all of Canada, and the only one designed to connect with the general public.”

Kroeker-Klassen says now that the facility is at the blueprint design stage, they are anxious to get going.

Kurt Siemens and his son Harley are also members of the barn building committee, which helped plan the facility.

Their large layer operation at Rosenort mirrors the egg production research and changes in hen housing that have taken place since Kurt’s father and Harley’s grandfather was an entrepreneur with a mixed farm and a number of other enterprises at Rosenort in the 1950s.

When the Siemens built a new barn in 2016, they converted conventional caged housing to furnished housing for one-quarter of their birds. Three years later, a new barn complex replaced the layer facility at the Siemens farm with two new 15,000 aviary free run layer barns and a 15,000-pullet aviary free run barn as well.

“Egg producers will supply what the customer wants. If cage-free eggs is their choice, we will supply that choice.”

The Manitoba Egg Farmers Layer Research Centre facility at Glenlea will be a joint research and public-access centre and the barn will house 2,200 hens in enriched housing and another 2,200 in an aviary setup.

The barn will also have the potential for a free range component, with birds having access to the outdoors, weather permitting, Kroeker-Klassen explains.

Large windows will afford the opportunity for visitors to look in at the birds on both sides of the barn and into the egg collection room. where visitors will see the egg cooler and the stacks of eggs.

There will be a large area for displays and food demonstrations relating to eggs, as well as a meeting room included in the plans for the public portion of the building.

An area not accessible to the public will house the university’s ongoing research, with rooms for metabolism, post mortem, egg quality and other areas of the U of M’s poultry research program.

The building will be built by Penfor of Blumenort and equipped by Caldora Poultry Equipment.

Caldora built and provided the housing for the Siemens’ newest barn complex, which hosted dozens of producers and government officials at an open house in April of 2019.

Cal Hiebert says his company will be supplying the enriched housing and aviary housing equipment for the research barn and is waiting for Manitoba Egg Farmers to give him the go ahead.

One of the major projects Caldora is now working on is expected to be completed by July and Hiebert is hopeful construction at Glenlea will begin in time to allow him to complete his part of that project this fall.

The housing in the research barn will be slightly different than what is usually seen in large layer barns.

The research facility will have a nesting system at the back of two rows of cages with a walkway in between, rather than in the centre of two rows. This will allow access for egg-gathering, since the facility will not be equipped with the automated egg-collection system used at many of the large layer operations.

Until the new building is completed, a small Manitoba Egg Farmers display in the main building will continue to be part of tours for visitors to the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre.