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10 THE RURAL VOICE
THE HIGH TECH APPROACH
TO CHICKEN PROCESSING
Robert Mercer is editor of the
Broadwater Market Letter, a weekly
commodity and policy advisory letter
from Goodwood, Ontario LOC 1AO.
Recently, I had the opportunity to
visit Maple Lodge Farms just outside
Georgetown. Canada's single largest
chicken processing facility, it grew
out of a farm business and is still loca-
ted on the grounds. The head office
and boardroom is in the mow of the
old barn, where foam insulation co-
vers the still exposed old beams. It's
a combination of down -on -the -farm
know-how and modern technology.
The company is owned and run by
the May family, and on a good day,
with good demand, the facility at R.R.
2, Norval, can handle close to 250,000
birds. Maple Lodge Farms is not only
into chicken processing, they are inte-
grating into other areas. They recent-
ly purchased Niagara Grain & Feed
and the Ayr feed mill from Cargill.
They also operate two chicken hatch-
eries, formerly Curtis Chicks and
Fleming Hatchery.
The most important part of the
business is in promoting their own
brand of chicken and deli products,
and now even dog food, under the
Maple Lodge brand name.
The facility is quite amazing for
anyone interested in automation and
time and motion studies. Wherever
possible, things are done mechanical-
ly. The special cuts for Kentucky
Fried Chicken, for instance, are all
taken from the carcass automatically.
What also intrigued me was that
key points down the production line
knew exactly when a new truckload of
broilers was on the processing lines.
For instance, the Agriculture Canada
inspector knew it took 12 1/2 minutes
for the first bird to arrive at their sta-
tion after being placed on the shackle.
By that time it was fully plucked,
opened, and ready for health inspec-
tion. From there, it was eviscerated,
cleaned, and on to the processing line
where each of the 15 workers took
just one cut as the bird moved down
the line. The carcass went one way —
for mechanical deboning — the cuts
another, to be packed, weighed, and
even priced for shelf delivery to
individual stores, if so requested.
There is no waste at Maple Lodge
Farms. Everything is used: the meat,
down to the last scraps that go into the
chicken wieners; the bones, the feath-
ers, and the waste water, which is
cleaned and purified. There is even
talk of the company going into the fish
raising business because of the volume
of fresh water used at the plant. It
would be a second use for a commodi-
ty already paid for.
It's all one long assembly line from
arrival of the birds, which are carefully
scheduled so as to minimize weight
loss, through processing, packaging,
storage, and retail. The company is
also an Ontario distributor for Cargill
meat which arrives in from the new
beef plant in High River, Alberta, and
is stored in the massive cold storage
areas for later distribution via the Ma-
ple Lodge fleet of trucks.
The staff, many of whom are Por-
tuguese, are well paid, and shift work
varies on the level of production. The
highest paid unionized workers are
those in the cold storage area because
of the working conditions.
The overall impression of this mo-
dern plant, which would compare well
with any in the U.S., is cleanliness.
They expand only when necessary, not
as forecast, exercise tight control from
the top on cutting unnecessary or fan-
cy expenses, yet have the best in mod-
ern processing and electronic control
equipment, coupled with a thorough
understanding of the poultry business.
Just how big is Maple Lodge
Farms? Well, if estimates given are
true, Maple Lodge, together with the
new Maple Leaf Foods, now control
over 80 per cent of Canada's broiler
processing.0