Poultry grower Rob Kestel welcomes anyone concerned about animal welfare to visit his Gingin farm, where he raises well over 800 000 meat birds per year under contract for Inghams.
He believes Australian reared poultry experience some of the best standards in the world, a topic he researched as part of a Nuffield scholarship 4 years ago. After 30 years in the industry, Rob started out as a critic of free-range, mainly because of increased production costs and biosecurity concerns.
However he’s glad he made the change, “It’s given us a whole new lease of life on the farm, we love seeing the birds outside.. if you’re passionate about birds, free range is very rewarding”.
A consumer-driven decision by Woolworths to stock more free-range meat on their shelves meant Inghams approached Rob about changing to supplying free range. Satisfied that increased production costs would even out with a slightly higher price per bird, Rob converted the farm in 2008. Fortunately Rob built his barns 20 meters apart, and they were fairly easy to convert to free range standards, accommodating outdoor range areas in between them that are twice the area inside.
Openings were made at 2 meter intervals so that chickens over 21 days old are free to range outside during daylight hours, trees and grass planted, and extra shade huts were built.
As a member and deputy chair of FREPA, (Free Range Egg and Poultry Australia) which regulates the standard of free range bird welfare across the industry, Rob is satisfied that the birds he rears enjoy the highest standard of living possible in an intensive farming environment.
He’s not happy about the recent decision by Woolworths to join Coles in a commitment to sell only RSPCA approved chicken meat. This means even free range growers will have to make changes despite already providing better standards for their birds, so that any over-supply can be sold as RSPCA approved. He says it will unnecessarily increase costs for free range growers like himself, who, like most primary producers, teeter on the profit line.
