When Brian Ahmed’s Cypriot migrant parents set up a small egg farm in Werribee South almost 45 years ago, it would have been hard for them to imagine it would one day be home to about 30,000 birds.
In those days, John and Julie Ahmed spent their days sweating on a 2.4-hectare free range farm with 500 chickens.
Today, sons Brian and Hilmi run a slick caged operation at LT’s Egg Farm, producing 20,000 eggs on site every day and bringing in another 200,000 eggs from suppliers.
“A farmer never takes the time to look back at what they’ve achieved. They’re just doing what needs to be done,” Brian says. “I don’t think my parents envisaged where their farm would have got to, but I think they’d be pretty proud.”
Brian’s hard work has been rewarded with two nominations in the Australian Farmer of the Year Awards – for egg farmer of the year and diversification farmer of the year. The diversification award recognises Brian’s foresight to expand his business to include a café, restaurant, deli and packaging import centre on the land his parents bought in 1969.
As president of the Victorian Farmers Federation egg group, Brian also spends a lot of time promoting the benefits of cage eggs.
“Our number one priority is the health of these birds. To me, farm management is key, not the production system,” he says. “I’ve had a free range egg farm and a barn laid egg farm and, to me, the cage system is the ideal system for the birds.
“I’m always trying to educate the public on the benefits of the cage system. It’s not the cruel production process that people think it is.”
Winners will be announced on September 10.
