Rebecca Tierney

You have to also consider that there's a huge block of land associated with that.

So for every thousand birds that is housed within the house, you must have one hectare of ground available for them to range to be Bordbea quality assured.

And that's what our consumer is looking for as well, is a Bordbea quality assured egg.

So the farmer has to consider if they're dairying or if they're suckler farming or finishing beef, they have to segregate that land away from that enterprise into a new enterprise.

And you have to take into that the opportunity cost that may be lost by switching enterprises.

You pay it back in a 10 to 15 year period is what the banks will, you know, loan the money out over.

But with that, you have a small income for them 10 to 15 years.

So it's...

it's a scary thought for a young person or someone that already has a house and they're doing okay with that house.

Is it worth the additional risk and the additional stress, financial pressure to take that on?

And at the moment, the producers just don't feel it is.

Now, look, don't get me wrong, there is expansion going on and there is new houses going up, but

But not everyone is happy to do that just at the moment.

Yeah, so look, the bird flu, our housing order is thankfully lifted.

And yet this year, I suppose this season of avian influenza typically starts in October and finishes, you know, it's getting later.

It's typically April, May now, depending on weather.

But yeah,

you know, if we take the 25, 26 period of avian influenza, yes, this looked long from November to May.

But if we go back to 24, 25, it was February to May and go back the following, the year previous to that, 23, 24, we actually had no housing order.

And again, the year before it was a November, April.