Chicken harvesters are widely used around the world but the Apollo Generation Two chicken harvester is reckoned to be the first one designed to meet UK welfare specifications.

It was designed and built by Italian firm Ciemmecalabria and UK firms CM Agriculture, NK Agricultural Services and Moy Park. There’s a choice of 3m, 7m or 9m wide heads and cost with a 7m head is expected to be £150,000. A series of belts draw the birds into the machine and ultimately into a large basket. Once the required weight is reached, the machine stops and the full trolley is taken away by forklift and loaded on to a truck.

The process is apparently much less stressful for the birds than hand-catching and the machine gives throughputs of 13-15 lorry loads a day compared to half that with hand catching. It also makes the job more pleasant for staff.

To read more about the machine and keep abreast of poultry developments, subscribe to Farmers Weekly’s sister magazine Poultry World .