Local egg equipment supplier EggTek is exhibiting at Balmoral Show for the first time this year.
The company was set up by Andrew Sayers shortly after he started a free-range egg unit on his farm near Strabane, Co Tyrone in 2019.
Andrew said the first flock through his 32,000-bird unit proved “very testing”, with problems ranging from pullets with health issues to mycotoxin contaminated feed.
The various issues in the first flock led to poor shell quality in the eggs. This caused liquid egg contamination on conveyor belts and too many grade A eggs were being downgraded.
To address the problem, Andrew developed a crack detector which allows liquid eggs to be identified before they reach the packer.
He said the technology works by using two conductive strips to detect moisture and sound an alarm when a cracked egg is heading towards the packer.
“The packer operator can clean the mess straight away before other eggs are contaminated. It reduces the number of second-class eggs and saves time trying to salvage contaminated eggs,” he said.
Other flaws
Once the crack detector was developed, Andrew started to notice other flaws in his hen house and packing area, particularly with onerous labour requirements.
He now works with a range of poultry equipment manufacturers to supply technology to egg producers across Ireland and the UK.
This includes Meggson, a Netherlands-based company that manufactures egg handling equipment for farm and grading facilities.
“Pallet stackers were the first thing we took on. It takes stacks of eggs off the conveyor and builds the pallet without any human intervention at all. It speeds the process up and requires less labour,” Andrew explained.
Tray stackers
After that, EggTek started dealing with Dutch company HeDi Pack to offer tray stackers and Italian firm Sime-Tek to supply egg packers. “We are now able to offer a complete set up for people,” Andrew said.
A more recent dealership has been with Switzerland based Nuovo for egg coding technology, which includes laser printing as well as standard stamping.
EggTek has also started working with Dutch firm Agrilight to provide LED lighting for both poultry and dairy units.
Customer base
An upcoming change for the company is the plan to move its headquarters from Strabane to a more central location at Kilcronagh Business Park in Cookstown.
Andrew said around half of EggTek’s customers are new hen houses and the other half are retrofits into existing sheds.
“Our first year at the hens was tough going but we learned a lot about where improvements can be made in poultry units.
“Labour-saving technology always seems expensive initially, but there is a quick return on investment. It’s those things that once you have them, you wondered how you ever managed without,” Andrew said.
EggTek founder Andrew Sayers also started a 120-cow dairy unit on his farm two years ago.
The cows are currently a three-way cross of Holstein, Norwegian Red and Montbéliarde.
Similar to his poultry enterprise, the dairy unit makes use of technology to save on labour requirements and to optimise livestock performance.
There are two GEA robotic milking parlours which use a guided system to manage cow traffic throughout the shed.
“There are one-way gates around the shed so, if a cow wants to get out to the feed barrier, she has to go through the selection gate. If she is due to be milked, it will take her to the robot first,” Andrew explained.
The shed also has a Lely Discovery Collector which is a robot that uses a vacuum system to automatically remove slurry from the shed floor.
A more recent addition to the dairy shed has been a Lely Vector system. This is a feeding robot which automatically mixes and delivers small, fresh portions of TMR to cows throughout the day.
“The use of technology in the dairy unit makes it much easier for our staff to run the unit on a day-to-day basis without the need from much intervention from me,” Andrew said.
