The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 30For his entire adult farming
life, Gerald Poechman has
been a visionary. The
vagaries all farmers contend
with including market access, pricing
fluctuations and, especially these
days, fickle weather patterns have
never discouraged his penchant for
blue-sky thinking and outside-the-
box initiative. A pioneer in the
agricultural sector, he has earned
some bragging rights. He was
Ontario’s first commercial organic
egg producer and he is a co-founder
of Organic Meadow, the farmer-
owned cooperative that remains at
the forefront of the organic dairy
business in Canada.
At 60, the tall, lean Bruce County
farmer is poised to set another trend.
His latest venture is a multi-
component cage-free aviary system
for organic egg production that
utilizes the best of imported German
technology and integrates a novel
idea of Poechman’s own. The
system, he says, makes for happier
laying hens, better egg production,
more nutritious eggs, less human
labour, and, he anticipates, greater
value for the organic eggs he and
others like him will produce.
With Marlene, his wife of 37
years, Poechman owns Poechman
Family Farm, a 150-acre operation
just east of Hanover. Several rented
farms bring the total acreage worked
to 600. In addition to their new 6,000
bird commercial-scale organic egg
operation, the Poechmans maintain
an organic mixed feed grain business
and run 25 head of organic beef
cattle.
Poechman’s affinity for the egg
business – and perhaps also his
venturesome nature – is inherited.
The barn in which he houses his
current flock was built by his father
in 1960, when the senior Poechman
decided to supplement his custom
farming business by trying his hand
at commercial specialization with a
flock of conventional laying hens.
With 5,000 - 6,000 birds, it was a
major undertaking. Most commercial
laying hen flocks at the time totalled
only 200 to 500.
26 The Rural Voice
Greens and sprouts grown in an on-farm greenhouse are fed to the
chickens during the winter and the chickens can free-range in the summer
at Poechman Farms near Hanover. The chickens are housed in a cage-
free, tiered aviary system designed by the Hellman Poultry Company and
called the Pro 10.
•By Gary Kenny •
Poultry
Eggs over easy, Poechman style
Gerald
Poechman
raises chickens
in a cage-free
aviary system
for organic egg
production