Egg farm plans wait to hatch

A PEARCEDALE egg farmer says the future of his business is in the hands of Casey Council.
The owner of Blias Egg Farm, Constantine Blias, will have to wait another fortnight to hear the final ruling on whether he can extend his farm after the matter was deferred for further investigation at Tuesday night’s Planning Committee Meeting.
His farm, on BaxterTooradin Road, has two layer sheds housing 45,600 egglaying birds. All of his birds are raised elsewhere and then brought to the farm.
Mr Blias said he applied to council to build a further four layer sheds each to house just under 20,000 birds, bringing the total number at the farm to about 130,000, which is the industry average.
He said the extension would compensate for the loss he would suffer when a new industry code of practice limiting the number of birds that could be housed in one shed was introduced in 2008.
“The number of birds in my first two sheds will have to be reduced by 20 per cent when the new code of practice comes in so I want to replace what I am going to lose,” he said.
Mr Blias said there was only one objector to the proposed extension, which was vital to the financial viability of his business.
“Council is concerned because the land is in a Green Wedge Zone, making it very hard for me to expand,” he said.
“I really can’t afford a 20 per cent drop.
“I started off as a very little egg farm in Lang Lang and we built this one here. For a while we were ahead of our competitors but now they have caught up and are bigger than us so again we have had to reinvest to keep up.
“To remain viable we have to try to keep up with industry standards,” he said.
Balla Balla Ward councillor Colin Butler said council officers refused the application in their initial recommendations but councillors agreed to defer the matter to the next planning meeting to allow Mr Blias to make a presentation stating his case.
“I knew from the very start that farmers and business people would be totally disadvantaged by the Green Wedge and this is a perfect example.
“I was hopeful that we could get him at least half of his sheds but we are going to try for the whole lot,” he said.