Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Visit to John Rohde's free range egg farm near Riverton.

A family farm business with 6-8 (I lost count) free range egg units (as per UK style on 80 week cycle), 2300acres arable and 2000 sheep.

John also retail packs his own eggs and sells direct to retailers in the district.
Very impressive attention to detail and focus on many enterprises.

The children are still at school, so John's a busy man!

Key issues for his business are:

Price of water (increased 50% in 2010-11 to around £1.50 per kl*)

Price of labour (£10/hr for very basic labour)

Price of chicken feed and field fertiliser

* Ministry of Finance statistic

We discussed price of electricity, but was very low compared to other input costs. PV/wind too expensive to install and get suitable return on investment at this point. John's keeping an eye on the technology and prices and is likely to buy into renewable energy when the time is right.