Humphrey Feeds: Past and Future
The business now called Humphrey Feeds Ltd was set up by John Humphrey in 1932. Having been pensioned out of the RAF following an injury, he bought land at Twyford, Hampshire, from where he developed his business. Initially all of his birds were free range, but he was quick to convert to the benefits of creating constant summer for the birds by bringing them indoors. From that moment on, he was able to sell eggs all year round. Up to that time, free range birds stopped laying in the winter, and eggs had to be pickled in order to for them to ‘keep’ over the winter months.
S.J.D Humphrey who has been poultry farming for 25 years acquired his first battery house in 1938. Up until then his layers had been kept in slatted floor houses on range.
In 1942 two second-hand houses with cages were purchased and although these had to remain empty for most of the war period, eventually they held 2,000 and 1,344 birds respectively. Mr Humphrey then started to building three houses of white bricks with corrugated roofing. In all three houses, electric lighting gives the layers a 14 – hour day. The birds were individually recorded on paper sheets stuck to the front of the top tier mash troughs which were at a suitable height for writing.
Besides being a large scale producer of commercial eggs – up to 120 cases a week are collected by the packing station – Humphrey is an accredited breeder with 2,000 head of mated stock.
The farm, North Fields Poultry Farm, covered 55 acres of land, therefore meaning there was plenty of range for rearing growing and adult stock. The only crop grown was grass and every blade of it was utilized for the poultry. Apart from that grazed directly by the birds the grass is mown from the end of April and carried to a grass dryer and milling plant on the farm. Each year five acres of grassland was ploughed, allowed to lie fallow during the summer and then re-seeded in the autumn. The cutting of all other grass continued through the season and on grown where the hay-box units have been the grass is sometimes cut as many as five times during the season.
The grass meal produced is incorporated in mashes ground and mixed on the farm and one end of a timber building was converted into accommodation for the milling and mixing plant, three Crittall silos were then added. The machinery at the farm included a hammer mill and a 1 ton mixer. A feature of the plant was a concrete pit into which up to 12 tonne of grain could be shot from the delivery lorry for elevating into the silos.
John realised that he needed to control his key inputs, and so reared his own birds, and fed his own feed. Initially he bought a concentrate from Silcock to add to the main raw materials. In the 1960s the mill was upgraded so that all of the feed was made from materials purchased and milled on site, dispensing with buying in concentrates. Feed was delivered to the growing number of farms by tractor, until 1971 when the first lorry was purchased.
More HGV’s were then jointly bought to supply the feed to friends. In 1984 a modern new mill was commissioned. This remains a ‘cutting edge’ plant, designed specifically to manufacture poultry mash. In 1991 a further enhancement was the installation of a pelleting plant which, along with a mash cooling capability was designed to address the then recent bio-security issues raised by Edwina Curry – this mill was labelled by Feed International as ‘The 21st Century Feed Mill’.
The pelleting plant originally supplied feed to broiler producers across the south of England, but that market has changed, which has allowed the business to focus on the growing number of free range egg producers, and the manufacture of organic feeds. Unlike many feed businesses we still invest in our business, spending £1 million in the last 3 years alone. We continue to develop and refine the plant to ensure that our offer to our customers meets their requirements. Our key area of expertise is producing optimal grists for poultry. We have a special computer controlled grinder which allows us to tailor make grists for different livestock – consistently.
Our organic feeds have proven performance benefits; nurturing optimal performance from layers and broilers through careful use of organic raw materials. Humphrey Feeds continues to grow its feed business as an independent specialist poultry feed producer, and we see a good future for our approach of uncompromised nutrition, experienced service and a flexible approach to customers – giving them what they want – cost effective feed and advice.
