SINGAPORE: Retail prices have risen recently. There is a possibility that Malaysia may limit its egg exports. But the managing director of this local egg farm has not stopped worrying.
For one thing, although eggs are fetching more, the price increase over the years has not kept up with overall inflation, says Mr Koh Yeow Koon, 43.
Seng Choon Farm is the Republic’s largest egg farm, meeting about 12 per cent of the market demand here.
But Mr Koh doubts that his or any local farm can begin to compete with Malaysian farms in terms of cost, which means a limit to sales.
Mr Koh Yeow Koon.
“There’s only a certain proportion of the market that’s willing to pay the higher price for the fresher, higher-quality eggs that Singapore farms produce,” he says.
“I think the amount of people willing to accept Singapore eggs is only about 30 per cent.”
That figure is just a tad higher than their current 27-per-cent share of consumption.
Mr Koh cites Singapore’s higher land, labour, utilities and compliance costs. But what it is that worries him more is the “increasing competition from farms that are doing one to two million eggs a day overseas”.
Seng Choon Farm exterior.
His farm produces 600,000 eggs daily from its 850,000 chickens. And the numbers overseas matter because “we’re increasingly seeing technology being catered for big farms”.
“It’s for sustainability and survival that we need to constantly upgrade our technology,” he explains. “So whether we like it or not, we have to be in the race. We have to adopt all this large-scale automation.”
Technology and automation are the factors in the resurgence of agriculture in Singapore. And that has been no different for Seng Choon since it moved to its 36-acre farmland (27 football fields) in Lim Chu Kang in 2010.
But just how is automation being used to supply Singaporeans with their eggs daily? Here are several ways, big and small, as CNA Insider discovered in an exclusive inside look at Seng Choon Farm.
WATCH: Inside Singapore’s largest egg farm (5:34)
1. HOW THE HENS ARE FED
Close to 100 tonnes of specially formulated feeds are prepared each day in the farm’s feed mill, with about a dozen tanks of various sizes needed to store the raw ingredients, like soya bean, maize and wheat.
Some materials such as maize come in big pieces, so they must first be chopped up in the hammer mill.
At the heart of the whole feed mill is the control room, where a computer weighs what is needed of each ingredient to get the correct proportion for each feed.
The feed mill.
“They’ll get mixed in a mixer … into the proper nutrition that the chickens need,” says Mr Koh.
The feed is sent by conveyor to all the hen houses – a job that used to be done manually and by truck – and is given to the hens five times a day by automatic dispensers.
“This control room seems to be getting smaller and smaller because, over the years, we keep putting in more equipment to reduce the amount of labour that’s involved,” Mr Koh adds.
Feed automation from inside the control room.
2. THE FEED DETERMINES THE TYPE OF EGG
Different chickens are given different feeds to produce a range of products, including carrot eggs and Omega-3 eggs, which are enriched with different vitamins and minerals.
“For example, if we feed the chickens with fish oil or Omega-3 enriched oils, they’d be able to pass these lipids into the egg yolk,” says Mr Koh.
“We can get lower-cholesterol eggs, or higher in vitamin D, and all this is done via our experience in feed varying.”
These specialty eggs are easily machine-sorted because they are packed at separate times.
There are, however, variations in the nutrients available in the eggs because the chicken “isn’t a machine”, and to a degree, this may also depend on the breed.
3. HOW THE HENS ARE HOUSED
The poultry houses are fully enclosed, each having four to six tiers and holding between 30,000 to 50,000 chickens. These are unlike the open and naturally ventilated structures of the past, which had two tiers.
Exterior of the hen houses.
“The temperature is better controlled because it’s enclosed,” says Mr Koh.
“So it may be 33 or 34 degrees outside, but we’re able to keep temperatures in the chicken sheds at 29 to 30°C with the use of evaporating cooling pads and controlled fans.”
With computers maintaining a stable temperature range, “the chickens are cooler and have better welfare”. Even the manure is collected via conveyor and brought to a central treatment area to be converted into compost.
Importantly, as egg farmers in Singapore are not allowed to use antibiotics on their hens, the enclosed houses help to ensure that there is no “interference from outside factors that may spread diseases to the chickens”.
The manure conveyor belt.
Only assigned workers and the veterinarian can enter after disinfecting themselves.
