PHOTO EFC
insulation the barn has, what kind of lighting is used, how manure is stored, how much water was used, and so on. Once all the data has been entered, egg farmers can see how their measurements stack up against other egg farms and access information on how to improve these outcomes. They are given scorecards that show the results of the assess- ment and how their farm compares nationally and regionally. From there, the action plan function in NEST enables egg farmers to set specific goals for things like feed consumption, water and energy use, among other factors. Egg farmers can identify their own goals, or can follow recommended re- search-based goals that are determined on the basis of their specific sustainability assessment results, in either case guiding farms toward higher levels of sustainability.”
You’ve stated that NEST enables egg farmers to remain at the forefront of implementing green technologies and new innovations. How so? Pelletier: “Green technologies continue to emerge and evolve, and knowing which technology makes the most sense – both environmentally and economically – for any given farm is often not straightforward. For example, when choosing be- tween renewable energy systems, such as wind or solar pow- er installations, it’s important to know the local availability of the renewable energy source, the benefits of replacing elec- tricity from the provincial electricity grid (which varies widely by province), the installation and maintenance costs, and the availability of specific incentives or rebates. With NEST, we aim to make these decisions easy for farmers by providing them with the necessary information.”
How will the anonymous aggregation of the informa- tion collected in NEST be used, other than for reporting to the public? Pelletier: “In addition to providing current and representative benchmarks for egg farmers, the data collected through NEST will also be used to monitor how the industry is evolving over time. This will indeed enable EFC to report on trends within the industry and position Canadian eggs in the protein source market on the basis of sustainability attributes. The data can also be used to potentially develop programmes or initiatives to support targeted sustainability improvements across the industry. As more and more egg farmers use NEST and contribute data to the aggregated data pool, this ex- panded data set will also open up opportunities for using ad- vanced machine learning and predictive analytic techniques to identify key technologies and management practices that support more sustainable outcomes.”
What uptake do you expect in terms of participation? How will you encourage it? Lambert: “We anticipate that egg farmers will find NEST to be easy to use, providing them with essential sustainability
information. To encourage adoption EFC is working closely with Canada’s provincial egg boards to provide farmers at local level with information about NEST. Participants are assured that the data collected by NEST will always be made anonymous.”
Tell us about future versions of NEST? Pelletier: “The first full version of NEST, called Full NEST, will be available in late 2022. As already described, it will enable farms to identify which systems make the most sense envi- ronmentally (for example, to reduce their carbon footprint). Subsequent versions of NEST will integrate cost and other in- formation to help egg farmers make even more informed choices. In the short term, NEST will contain information about both renewable energy systems and manure waste-to-energy valorization systems, while subsequent ver- sions will also include information on new technologies, like manure pelleting, pyrolysis, as well as both passive and active geothermal systems for heating and cooling barns. More spe- cifically, future versions of NEST will also include regional and farm-specific estimates of costs and economic payback times for specific green technology systems, so that farmers can make informed decisions taking into account the economic viability of different sustainability technologies and practices for their farms in terms of the environmental sustainability benefits. Future versions of the tool will also integrate animal welfare data, enabling farmers to benchmark against housing system-specific industry performance for a variety of key wel- fare indicators, such as foot and feather condition, disease incidence, mortality rates, etc.”
NEST is currently available to all registered Canadian egg farm- ers who can access the tool at
eggsustainability.ca. For more information about Egg Farmers of Canada’s commitment to and focus on sustainability, read the organisation’s inaugural Sustainability Report.
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 6, 2022 31
EFC CEO Tim Lambert notes that over the last five decades, egg production in Canada has al- ready made sub- stantial progress in reducing emissions.
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