Finnish laying hen farm – growing production together

Ida Toivonen (30) is the manager of Säkylän Munakori, a farm in Finland with 140,000 DeKalb White laying hens in 4 identical houses. The farm, which was built in 2021/2022 on a new site, is owned by a cooperative of 20 poultry farmers who together have around 1.5 million layers and all deliver their table eggs to the same buyer, Kieku OY.

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Säkylän Munakori is a beautiful new farm with plenty of development opportunities. Approximately 5 hectares are designated for building, newly-developed at the edge of a forest. Next to each other, 4 identical houses are set up. There are feed silos positioned in front of each house and behind every 2 houses is a large shed for storing dry manure.

Each house, which has 4 rows of aviaries, houses 35,400 hens. The individual buildings are connected by a corridor in front of the houses. The egg conveyor belt and feed lines run through that corridor. The egg collection room and egg storage room have been built next to the 4 houses. An office, canteen and changing room have been built on the side of that house.

The farm is surrounded by fencing. There is plenty of space in front of and next to the houses, neatly tidied up and covered with gravel. There is a charging station at each of the (at least) 10 parking spaces. “It gets really cold here in the winter, so these stations are mainly for the parking heaters of the cars of the employees and visitors,” says company manager Ida Toivonen with a smile.

The groundwork for 2 new houses is already completed. The 2 sheds on the left are for storage of dry manure. The wood pellet burner is located in the front right shed.

Founded by 20 farmers

That smile vanishes when she talks about what she has experienced in recent years and how things are going now. The company was founded 4 years ago by a cooperative of 20 layer farmers who supply their eggs to egg trader and packing station Kieku OY in Loimaa. Due to the stricter welfare requirements in 2020, these poultry farmers were able to keep approx. 15% fewer hens. Expanding the sheds individually by a fraction and replacing the existing cage housing with aviaries was not feasible. Working together and building one new site for the animals that were affected by the lower stocking density requirements made financially more sense.

That resulted in a new location a few kilometres outside a village near a lake that is very popular with tourists. “The permit was not a problem,” says Ida. “In fact, we can expand here to a total of 12 houses (over 560,000 hens in total). First with 2 houses next to the current 4, then we can mirror everything on the other side of the egg room.”

That expansion has been pre-sorted. The egg collection area and egg storage have already been built for over 400,000 hens. That shed measures approx. 15m x 25m and is 6m high. It now gives an almost empty impression while an employee supervises the collection belt and stacking robot. An extra collection line with a packing robot could easily be install. The building is spotlessly clean, just like the rest of the farm. “I think it’s important that the whole farm is tidy,” says Ida, “I also insist that the employees keep everything tidy. Maybe a habit I got from my mother, who also always insists on a clean farm.”

The groundwork and foundation for the expansion with a 5th and 6th house has already been completed. “We are dependent on the domestic sales of table eggs that the packing station projects. As soon as that indicates that there is room for extra production, these houses will be constructed fast.”

There is still plenty of space in the egg room. There is enough space for a second Moba collection and packaging line.

Technical knowledge

In addition to Ida, the company now has 4 employees – 3 women and 1 man. They work 38.5 hours a week. “That will have to change,” says Ida. “I have been here at the farm since the start of construction and I know every nut and bolt of the installations. The 4 employees only focus on the animals and eggs – basically mandatory daily tasks. I have to fix all malfunctions in addition to the care of the animals and general management. That is not feasible, so I hope the next employee will have a technical background and lots of experience.”

Her own background is quite special considering her responsibilities. She graduated from a college in music, joined the army and then started as a professional musician at the Finnish Defence Forces. Since she was a little girl it had always been clear that she would study agriculture, and in 2020 she graduated with a degree in this field. She wanted to return to her native region to eventually take over her parents’ arable farm with 20,000 laying hens and hopefully in the future some sheep. “I heard about the position and to my big surprise I was hired.”

Ida does not expect to continue as a farm manager for many years. “The pay is good and the work is varied, but it is mainly crisis management and I dread the fact that the motto is expand, expand, expand. For me it really stops when there are 8 houses and we have to build again. When I no longer enjoy it, I will start farming with my parents with all the knowledge and experience I have gained here.”

The inlet valves of the first house are positioned next to the wall. In the houses built later, they moved further and further above the aviaries, which considerably improved the climate in the house.

Scaling up

Ida experiences that she continues to encounter problems due to the scaling up and construction. “The 4 houses that are there now were built one after the other. In the first house, we had a lot of ventilation problems. In the second, the position of the intake valves was adjusted, more towards the cam. That produced some improvement. In the third it went almost well, and in the fourth, we really have a clear idea of how it should be done and the ventilation works as it should.”

It is the same with the aviaries. “The Landmeco aviaries are working fine. The overview of the animals is good, also with the egg belt. But the drive of the manure belts turned out to be too light. That led to a lot of malfunctions. The new engines and reduction gearboxes were supplied, but it was a hell of a job to replace them all.”

The dry manure is conveyed to a shed where it is stored for a year. Sales are no problem at all, as the company is located in an arable farming area. “The manure yields €4 per tonne. Obtaining the manure sales contracts that you need to have to be allowed to keep chickens is a no brainer.”

The first 4 sheds were put into use one after the other, so there are 4 ages of hens on the farm. “That allows us to continue to supply eggs fairly evenly.” One of the sheds is empty during the visit. After a week of vacancy, it is cleaned, which takes 2 weeks. Then Dekalb White hens are placed back in. “They are easy to work with; very important because the employees have little knowledge of poultry.”

In the first flock, a serious outbreak of Infectious Bronchitis occurred among the hens. That caused losses and depressed egg production in all 4 sheds. “We delivered the flocks about 4 weeks earlier than planned. It was not until 18 months after the disease struck that the last infected hens left the farm.”

The Landmeco aviaries offer an excellent overview of the hens. “We already had Dekalb White hens at home, so continuing with that was easy,” says Ida Toivonen.

Sound numbers

The hens stay until 95 weeks of age and now lay an average of 95%, according to Ida. “That varies from 99.9% in shed 2 to 92% in shed 4. In the flock in which Infectious Bronchitis was going around, that laying percentage was considerably lower. The worst flock achieved 83% laying, while the best flock 92%,” said Ida.

Average feed intake is 110 g per day, an that is where the farm manager’s knowledge of the results end. “I’m not really into numbers. Losses, daily feed intake and egg production, together with quality, are the only figures I register.”

But she can do the math. The feed costs €31 per 100 kgs, which is €1,193 in feed for 35,000 hens per house and 110 g per day. The eggs yield €1.70 per kg. At 95% laying, there are 33,250 eggs of an average of 63 g, which is 2,095 kgs of eggs, a yield of €3,561. That gives a feed profit of €2,368 per day, €85,248 per barn per year or, with an average of 3 weeks empty, more than €325,000 per year for the current operation with 4 houses. The wage costs are around €200,000 per year. So the farm is profitable.

The current employees are all Finnish, from the area, but without a poultry background. Attracting regional people is difficult. Or will the next employee be Ukrainian? “On the one hand, employing Finnish is preferred, because of the language. Ukrainians are eager to get started and are familiar with working with animals. But they do have the ‘no problem’ attitude.”