The Rural Voice, 1980-02, Page 7Pieter Westerhout stands beside his farm sign on
his 10 -acre operation at Whelan's Corners at the
tip of Huron County. (Photo by Gibb)
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Marjorie Cartwright gathers eggs as they comeeff the automatic
conveyor belt on her farm at R.R.1, Londesboro. (Photo by Gibb)
Gerry Heyink and eldest son Bill, of Heyink Poultry Farms,
collect eggs three times a day in their operation to guarantee a
fresher product and prevent cracks. (Photo by Gibb)
today are inhumane, Mr. Westerhout said
he disagrees completely. He said it's just
as inhumane to keep birds on open floor
housing where they fight for the available
food, run the risk of contacting disease or
parasites. He said if that system was still in
effect, eggs would be selling for more at
the farm gate and there would have to be
three people working in an operation the
size of his to keep up with the eggs. Also,
the eggs would naturally be dirtier when
collected, which means using up more
valuable time.
If there's a major difference between
egg producers and other members of the
farming community, Pieter Westerhout
feels it might be that "anybody in the
chicken industry is isolated from others in
agriculture." While the egg producer can
be more independent, he can also
sometimes feel cut off from the concerns
facing fellow farmers. Also, Mr. Wester-
hout said his setup is almost more
factory-like than farm -like. One advantage
however, is that he doesn't have to invest
in much of the equipment found on most
farms.
One of Pieter Westerhout's fellow
committeemen on the Huron County (Zone
6) Egg Producers' Board is Marjorie
Cartwright of R.R. 1, Londesboro. Mrs.
Cartwright and her husband Howard live
on a family farm that's hcen in the
Cartwright family for more than 120 years
and now they combine an egg operation
with cash crop farming.
Howard Cartwright started in the egg
business in 1959, before the couple were
married, and over the yearsbuilt two new
barns, each with six inches of insulation in
the walls and ceilingsand gradually built
up the farm's quota. Eventually Mr.
Cartwright decided to switch his attention
to an expanded cash crop operation and to
raising 8,000 pullets, so the egg quota was
put in his wife's name, "since she was
doing the work anyway."
Today Marjorie Cartwright has 15,000
laying hens, although the barns have a
capacity for 21,000 birds. The pullets which
Mr. Cartwright raises are for use both as
replacement hens for their own flock and
are sold to other egg producers.
The Cartwrights feel they're about as
automated as the economy of their
operation allows. They have one barn filled
with plastic cages, imported from England,
but now manufactured in Toronto, which
have a capacity of seven birds to the cage.
Due to quota controls, the Cartwrights
have five birds per cage in this barn. The
cages are stacked three tiers high and
plastic belts are used for manure removal.
The second barn contains metal cages
with glass decks. The advantage of the
glass decks, according to Howard Cart-
wright, is that the manure or "liquid gold"
as he calls it, doesn't stick to the glass and
THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1980 PG. 5