Farmers hailed in Scottish egg quality awards

Scottish egg farmers have once again gathered to celebrate the their produce at the annual Scottish Egg Quality Awards. 

The competition, now in its 28th year, is a social event, but one in which the competition is taken very seriously. 

Organisers drove more than 3,000 miles, across the breadth of the country, to collect eggs, which are then submitted to Scotland’s rural college, the SRUC for evaluation by an independent judging panel. Feed business For Farmers sponsors the endeavour. 

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This was the first year the new head of monogastric research at the college, Jos Houdijk, led the judging panel, having succeeded Nick Sparks. 

Eggs were assessed on a number of characteristics including shell quality and thickness, colour, albumen height, yolk quality and inclusions (blood or meat spots). Entrants with the highest scores were invited to the awards ceremony where they were presented with certificates of commendation.

This year, the overall producer retailer category went to Farmlay Eggs’ Robert Chapman, while the organic and producer awards went to Gordon Whiteford of Rosebrae, Arderseir and Alistair Mackay of Brackla Farm in Cawdor, Nairn respectively.

Mr Mackay said: “We are delighted to receive this award.  As a family we have always put the health of our hens and the quality of our eggs as our uppermost priorities and it is fantastic to be given recognition for this.”