Ayrshire egg producer retailers Jim and Anne Smillie have taken the top honours in the 2010 Scottish Egg Quality Awards competition repeating their success in last year¹s competition.
In this year¹s contest, former East Kilbride milkman Jim Smillie and his wife Anne of Corrie Mains Farm, Sorn Road, Mauchline, Ayrshire helped by their younger son Ross and elder son James at week-ends beat 21 other entrants by scoring a total of 520 points.
They will hold the Championship shield for a year. They first entered the competition in 1997 and were joint champions in last year¹s contest.
Sponsored by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and feed compounders BOCM PAULS, the competition is aimed at ³encouraging the pursuit of excellence in egg quality providing benchmark standards that are realistic and achievable and to recognise the highest quality and consistency achieved by the successful entrants².
Entries came from both conventional cage and free-range systems of egg production. The SAC carried out quality assessments on eight key factors:
shell colour, egg weight, yolk colour, albumen quality, shell thickness, freedom from meat and blood spots, external appearance and packaging.
The Smillies have built up an impressive list of successes in this annual contest, taking major awards in the past four years. They use Hy-Line birds in two new Harlow units and keep the birds on a traditional system of slatted floors and scratch areas. The 20,000 layers are split into six flocks, providing eggs of all sizes all year round.
The eggs are graded and packed in a new packing station on the farm. BOCM PAULS feed all the birds on their Caledonian Advance and Ultimate feeds which are specifically formulated to promote egg size and yolk quality and colour.
The eggs are retailed direct to shops within a 90-mile radius, in distinctive vans, and there are also ³very healthy² farmgate sales in addition to a strong support for local farmers¹ markets. The eggs are sold under the ³Corrie Mains Free Range Eggs² brand.
³The standard of management at Corrie Mains is exceptional and this is reflected in their continuing success in this competition which they first entered in 1997.
They are at the top in the UK for production and egg quality and are very bio-secure. They have built up their markets by offering top quality eggs with a first class delivery service,² says David Beckley of BOCM PAULS.
