Daybreak Farms aiming to achieve zero-waste, cage-free facility

Daybreak Farms in Terrace has a plan to create a better quality of life for its chickens and produce a value-added product using its waste.

Kieran Christison, manager, presented her vision for the egg farm’s future to the city at an April 12 council meeting.

“It’s time for Daybreak to modernize, and I’m very excited about it, it’s the right thing for the whole neighborhood,” she told council.

Currently, the facility uses a deep pit manure system, where chickens are located on the main floor of the barns and manure drops into a pit below.

Over the span of a few years, Christison wants to renovate the farm’s three barns, eliminating the pits and replacing them with a new system that uses belts to remove manure daily. From there, it would be composted in a sealed container along with egg waste, cardboard and deceased chickens.

According to Christson, that system would mean that 98 per cent of the farm’s waste would be composted, turned into pellets and bagged, resulting in a “garden and landscape quality product.” She said that composting process would create new jobs, and there is already demand for manure from as far away as Vanderhoof.

“By composting, pelletizing and bagging this product, the boundaries will be limitless for selling,” Christison said, noting that right now there is no cost effective way of transporting the farm’s manure.

Christison told council that she had a meeting last week with neighbours who were appreciative of her sharing information, but are concerned about flies in the area around the property. Christison said that with the elimination of the deep pit and manure being dealt with daily, there will be a reduction in the ability for flies to lay their eggs.

While the footprint of the barns would not change, Daybreak Farms would have a larger footprint overall due to composting, which requires permits from the city.

During the meeting, several members of the community asked questions about the new system via City of Terrace social media channels. City staff are passing those questions along to Christison to answer at a later date.

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