Oakdell Egg Farms is dedicated to providing safe, nutritious eggs while maintaining the highest quality care for our hens. At the same time, we understand the importance of protecting the land, water and air for our communities and future generations, and continually look to identify ways for improvement.
Over the past 50 years we’ve made significant improvements to reduce our environmental footprint:
- Feed efficiency. Because of advancements in nutrition and bird breeding, young hens now require 48% less food during the rearing period.
- Advancements in hen housing. Improved building ventilation, temperature control, better lighting and a more secure housing environment help to ensure that hens are protected from disease carrying wildlife.
- Manure management. A significant portion of our manure is recycled into compost and/or pelletized to provide nutrients for plants, contributing to healthy soils, saving energy and reducing commercial fertilizer use. This created a vast reduction in our carbon footprint.
- Reduce, reuse, recycle. We use more energy efficient lights, increased the volume of products recycled, reduced packaging, and converted to more energy efficient vehicles.
These improvements have resulted in the following approximate reductions in our environmental footprint compared to 50 years ago:
- 26% less daily feed use
- 27% higher hen-day egg production
- 42% better feed conversion
- 57% lower mortality
- 32% less direct water use per dozen eggs produced
We have measured our carbon footprint and continue look for ways to make further reductions.