PRODUCER PROFILE
Above: The Byrne family at their Pages Flat farm with their chooks and Maremmas. Photo by Andy Steven.
Feather & PECK Story by Sam Marchetti.
It’s one of life’s great conundrums: what came first, the chicken or the egg? But for free-range egg producers Feather & PECK, this question entirely misses the point. It’s neither the chicken nor the egg: the pasture comes first. On their Pages Flat farm, John and Catriona Byrne’s chickens scratch, dig and peck their way through pesticide, herbicide and artificial fertiliser free pasture every day. And as they do, they follow along behind the farm’s grazing cattle, continually working to regenerate the pasture as they go. When the Byrnes purchased their farm twenty years ago, it was a traditional cattle-grazing property, cleared to maximise paddock space. Today if you stand at the top of their property and take in the view, evidence of their work to revegetate their land is abundantly clear. Since taking over the property, the Byrnes have planted the creek lines with natives as well and introduced shading trees in the paddocks and windbreaks where required. The movement of the cows and chickens across the paddocks has also led to rich fertilisation of the pastures, returning a lush green vista on the day we visit in late July. But it’s a job that’s never done. ‘There’s always something to do,’ laughs Catriona. Five years ago, John decided to leave corporate life to diversify the farm’s business and started growing chickens for eggs. Not only did it make sense to create an additional income stream by adding Hy-Line Brown hens to their livestock, they were also adding a few thousand ‘mini farmers’ who became responsible for pasture management as well as laying high-quality eggs.
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The chickens are homed in purpose-built caravans, each fitted out for 600 hens who roost and lay in their boxes and travel once or twice a week in their personal ‘cruise ships’ to a fresh pasture. The rest of the time the chooks have unfettered access to the outdoors, free-range foraging for a portion of their food among the worms, bugs and weeds at the same time as fertilising and turning the topsoil and dispersing the cow manure. All kept in check by the Maremma dogs who stay with them rain, hail or shine to protect them from foxes and birds of prey. Being happily homed and pasture raised has a positive impact on the quality of the hens’ health which in turn influences the taste, colour and eggshell quality of the egg. ‘We often have customers tell us ‘We love your eggs and won’t ever go back to other eggs. We can taste the difference,’ says John. Once the eggs are hand collected, they are graded, sorted, packed and distributed from Willunga. From selling their first eggs at the Adelaide Farmers’ Market in 2017, they now have 12,000 hens across five Fleurieu farms with all eggs being sold the week they’re collected. This co-farming approach not only enables Feather & PECK to support the viability of smaller farms to grow pasture-raised eggs, it also means there are more ethical eggs to sell under their brand to local cafes, like Pipi at Middleton, as well as grocers and supermarkets across Adelaide and the Fleurieu and locally from farmer to market at Willunga Farmers’ Market. The success of Feather & PECK is a family effort, with John, Catriona and their two children sharing the responsibility of the daily egg collection.Their dedication has recently been recognised at the South Australian Premier’s Food and Beverage Industry Awards 2020, where they won the Primary Producers Award (for 15 staff or less.) They have plans to expand and include more farms in the Feather & PECK flock in order to supply premium pastured free-range eggs to more South Australians, all while generating great soil and improving the land of local farmers. An egg-cellent plan indeed.
