Darragh McCullough

They get a cut, but like most, I suppose, produce that comes from the farm, most primary produce, it's a pretty small fraction of the shelf price that ends up in the farmer's pocket.

So typically a third of the shelf price

of the products you see on the shelf are ending up in the farmer's pocket, whether it's milk, eggs, you know, a head of lettuce or anything else.

So, you know, if there's a premium for your free range eggs of, say, 20 or 30 or 40 cent, about a third of that premium ends up going back to the farmer.

Well, there is the million-dollar question.

Well, I have a tiny flock, right?

Like, you know, 100 birds.

And it's a Mickey Mouse flock compared to most commercial operators.

What I'm told is that it costs about for maybe 4 cent extra per...

0.4 cent extra per egg to produce an egg in a free range system.

I don't run a barn system.

Most of the barn systems from what I hear are operated by the packers and that's a fairly small ring of producers and they keep the numbers and their cards fairly close to their chest.

Absolutely.

Definitely more work.

For example, the days are getting long and particularly over the next month, it doesn't get dark until about maybe 10 o'clock in the evening.

The birds, the free range birds want to be out when it's daylight, when there's any light around.

And so very often it's like herding cats.

It's almost impossible to round them up before it starts to get dark.

So most free-range egg producers are out running around the field or a paddock at 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening trying to get the last of their birds back into their shed.

If you have a barn system, you're tucked up inside with your cup of tea watching the telly.