SustainabilityMcGill Feeding McGill

Final Report

Macdonald Campus Farm Poultry Complex

Supplying Eggs to McGill Staff, Students and Faculty

The Objective

Our goal is to provide fresh Grade A eggs to McGill Food Services for their many nutritious meals produced in McGill cafeteria’s, as well as to the students and staff. The Poultry Unit is ready to be just one of many who contribute goods or services to the McGill Community.

There were some obstacles that had to be overcome.

First we had to determine if we could sell our eggs to the public, second we needed to locate an egg grading machine, third find funding for the egg grader and fourth we had to find a location to put the egg grader with little or no renovations that would not disrupt any of our mission objectives.

On the plus side we had very strong support from McGill Food Services, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and the Sustainability Project itself.

The Process

First step was to contact the Fédération des Producteurs D’Ouefs de Consommation du Quebec to see what the rules and regulations were and determine if we could sell the eggs to the public, in the manner that we wanted, without becoming a registered Grading Station and susceptible to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Rules and Regulations. It was determined that we could not so the CFIA was contacted and that process was initiated in April of 2011.

The second step was to locate a manufacturer of an egg grader of the appropriate size. After consultation with other Poultry producers and personnel it was determined that a suitable machine was available in the United States , inquiries were made and a quote was obtained from National Poultry Equipment in Osage, Iowa.

The Process continued

The Third step was to find the Funding, we had already had contact with the Sustainability Project and knew that we had to write a proposal to the Project. The idea of writing a proposal can be a daunting task but the people that were in charge made the writing of the proposal as easy as possible and as they also supported the idea the process was easier.

The last step was the location, the Poultry personnel narrowed the search down to two possibilities which were then shown to Inspectors from the CFIA. The CFIA advised on the best location and the process to become an Egg Grading Station was started.

The Benefits

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The egg grader is a machine that will be used for demonstrations to students from the graduate, under graduate and FMT levels. The purchase of the egg grader will also give the Poultry Unit an opportunity to join the growing initiative “McGill Feeding McGill” program.

This egg grading machine will also be a valuable teaching tool in a number of departments which would include the Farm Management Technology Program, Food Science and Animal Science to name just a few. The machine will also be an incentive to companies that want to do research in the Poultry Unit on a contract basis.

The students will have an opportunity to see firsthand how an everyday consumable product is brought from the barn to the table. They will also see the process of egg grading and how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulations and procedures are put into place on a working poultry farm.

As new or current graduate students are introduced to the Poultry Unit, the training and use for teaching, research or demonstrations would increase.

In Closing

As we write this report we are still waiting for the CFIA to authorize the Poultry Unit to start grading eggs and it could take another month or so but we anticipate being able to provide quality, nutritious eggs to the McGill Community in a safe an orderly manner by the fall of 2012.

In the BeginningFinding the right room was easy, this room had very little use in the previous six (6) years. The incubator you see here was relocated so that both incubators are in the same room.

Egg Grader AsemblyAssembly of first half of Egg Grader

Egg Grader AssemblyAssembly of second half of Egg Grader

Hole in wallThe Egg grader is so long that we had to cut a24” X 24” hole in the wall so that it would fit.

Final AssemblyEgg Grader put together and operational.

Final AssemblyEgg Grader put together and operational

Final AssemblyThe Egg Grader is over seventeen feet long.