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Spent hen warning

Egg producers looking to deplete their flocks in December or January are being advised to book early to avoid disappointment.

The end of the year has traditionally been a hectic time for depleting spent hens, but this year could be busier than ever because of the approaching European Union ban on conventional laying cages. The ban is due to come into force on January 1 next year and many existing cage producers may well continue producing right up to the deadline. If they do so, there may well be greater demand than usual for spent hen services at the end of the year. That will affect free range producers just as much as cage producers.

Martin Troop, managing director of the poultry division at Noble Foods, said it would be more important than ever this year for producers to plan ahead. "We are already seeing plenty of bookings around Christmas and the New Year," said Martin. "Anyone intending to deplete in December or January needs to get their bookings in place or they may well miss out. They may be disappointed."

There have been rumours that spent hen capacity has been tight already this year, particularly over the last month or two, but Martin said he had not seen any particular problems at Noble so far. "It gets tight from time to time if you get a couple of big sheds coming out, but that has been no different from usual. The first couple of weeks of September were a bit tight, but nothing out of the ordinary."
He said that if producers encountered problems with spent hen services it was usually because they had left it late to book the service. Martin said it was always advisable to plan ahead and book well in advance. That advice would become even more important towards the end of this year, he said.

A "fair number" of conventional cage units had been taken out in the United Kingdom, he said, although there were other conventional cage users who seemed intent on continuing in production until the last minute. "We can see from our own records that a fair number of those cage units have already gone out. Some producers have clearly decided to take them out early because of the current state of the egg market, but there are conventional units still out there and that may add to the pressure at the end of the year."

Martin said that until it became clear how the European Union intended to police the regulations when they came into force in the New Year, it was difficult to anticipate exactly what would happen. He said that Lion producers would be required to comply with the new EU rules, but it was still unclear what would happen elsewhere. However, he said Noble expected higher demand than usual for spent hen services in December and January.

"It is always a very busy time of year, anyway," said Martin. "We would always advise producers to book early because of the heavy demand around Christmas, but we are more concerned than usual this year. I can understand producers waiting but sometimes you can come unstuck, and producers who delay too long this year could have problems."

Bookings for the end of the year were already stacking up. "If we have another winter like last year we could have even more problems."
Martin said that whether producers were intending to use Noble or another company to deal with their spent hens, they should avoid waiting too long to book.