Lin said he was raising about 55,000 hens on a farm that could accommodate 285,000 if they were caged. "I was determined to keep my promise to my mother before she died that I would help my father manage the farm." "Those were huge losses for me, but I refused to stay down," he said. "It also boosts public confidence in the quality of the products and allows for sustainable growth of egg farming in Taiwan."įollowing the conversion of the business from broiler poultry to layer chicken farming, Lin struggled financially for the next three years, racking up total losses of more than NT$10 million (US$357,000). "In the long term, creating a safe and healthy environment for chickens should help farmers reduce operating costs," Lin said. Photo courtesy of Mao-lin Animal Welfare Poultry Farm The barns also had to be fitted with new equipment for climate control, which had to be imported.
HAPPY FARM DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID FREE
That decision required the construction of new facilities, including laying nests in the five barns on the farm, as well as dust baths for the hens, which help to keep them clean and free from mites, lice and other parasites, without the use of pesticides. "That prompted me to reflect on the concept of 'happy farming' and led to the change from raising meat birds." "Every time she learned that broilers were about to be slaughtered, she would get so upset, she'd lock herself in her room for a week," Lin said. But Lin soon became aware that his younger sister was having a problem with one aspect of the business. When he took over management of the farm from his elderly father in 2015, it was a broiler poultry farm.
HAPPY FARM DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID SERIES
While Lin's farm in Miaoli's Zaociao Township did not start out as a cage-free egg farm, a series of circumstances led the owner to move in that direction. "But what counts is the love and care we give to our chickens." "It is difficult for small farmers like me to compete against them," he said. Three years later, Lin is facing stiff competition from big companies that have since entered the market for the supply of barn-laid eggs, as they are also called. By Flor Wang and Tseng Chi-yi, CNA staff writer and reporterĮric Lin's (林智傑) five-hectare farm in Miaoli was one of the first in Taiwan to start supplying major supermarket chains in the country with locally produced cage-free eggs in 2018.