Plans for 8,000 chickens as part of free range egg facility as Northumberland farm makes diversification bid
Plans are in the pipeline for a new free range egg facility housing 8,000 chickens as part of a farm diversification project in north Northumberland.
An application for two 4,000 bird free range egg units on land west of Humbleton Farm, Wooler, has been submitted.
The notification of prior approval has been lodged on behalf of James Short, controlling partner of JC & DC Short Ltd.
Documents indicate the buildings would be used solely for the housing of free range chickens.
They add: “The buildings will be of a low, single-storey agricultural form under a shallow duo-pitch roof (eaves height 2.56m, ridge height 4.19m), of steel portal frame construction clad in profile steel sheeting to the walls and roof in a recessive dark green finish. This form of construction and finish is typical of, and appropriate to, modern agricultural livestock buildings of this kind.”
Each building would incorporate a bird housing area together with an ancillary control room housing feed, water and environmental control plant, with the adjoining pasture to be used as free-range areas.
The farm is currently a mixed enterprise, combining a closed Romney flock of approximately 1,100 breeding ewes with an arable rotation of winter wheat, winter oats, oilseed rape, potatoes and fodder crops.
The applicant’s agent states: “The proposal represents a diversification of the existing mixed farming enterprise into free-range egg production, a well-established and expanding form of farm diversification nationally.
"It will provide the business with an additional and more predictable income stream to complement the existing sheep and arable enterprises, helping to safeguard the long-term viability of the farm business against the volatility of livestock and commodity markets.”