He joined the RAF and was in the Royal Air Force for 10years where the day job was a Harrier pilot, before retiring back to the family farm in late 1989, which he and his wife Helen took over.

The farm has grown from 200 chickens and in 1996, David and Helen set up Lakes Free Range Egg Co Ltd to sell their eggs.

The ethos even way back in 1996 was ‘to sustainably supply only Free Range and Organic Free Range eggs produced to high welfare standards, top 10% of UK performance and leading edge innovation’.

There has been a constant stream of innovation and research in partnership with some of the UK’s leading research institutions.

The business has now grown to several egg-producing farming businesses, a pullet rearing operation rearing well over one million birds per year and the Lakes Free Range Egg Co Ltd which now turns over £100 million and packs half a billion eggs per year from contracted producers across the midlands northwards, including to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Currently, for a relatively small company, we have several PhD researchers seconded on major research programmes into all aspects of chicken behaviour, innovation, nutrition and welfare.

David will be presenting alongside Carly Brass on the FLOCKWISE project Lakes Free Range Egg Co Ltd have been undertaking in collaboration with FAI Farms.

He researches how pollution and environmental stress impact upon plants and ecosystems.

Over the past decade he has focussed on agricultural systems and embracing the circular economy.

As part of this work he has developed systems focused on duckweed that have the capacity to clean aquatic systems, whilst at the same time producing valuable protein.

She will be presenting research findings from the FluMap project, which focused on trying to understand farmers' use of biosecurity on poultry farms in relation to the UK avian influenza outbreaks.

He has worked with a diverse range of poultry businesses including broiler, layer, turkey and gamebirds.

In 2020 he joined Massey Feeds as Monogastric Technical Manager and works closely with the three feed mills within the group as well as supporting the sales team.

In his talk he is going to give an overview of new legislation that is going to affect soya and highlight the potential implications within the poultry supply chain.

Emma will present the three-year UKRI/DEFRA funded research project, entitled “Towards Resilient Industrial Socio-Metabolic Relations of Chicken. (TRI-SoMe Chicken),” which started in the Autumn of 2024.

She will be accompanied by Prof Damian Maye (University of Gloucestershire), who leads the workstream studying the experiences of poultry farmers to disruptions, and Prof Justin Sheffield (University of Southampton), who is leading efforts to build a systems dynamic model of the poultry food system to explore scenarios and impacts on those often regarded as ‘externalities’.

The TRI SoMe Team brings together diverse expertise around food, crossing different disciplines, and including poultry industry stakeholders (Food Insecure Communities, UK Poultry Growers and Global Poultry Supply Chain Consultants).

They are pioneering in-ovo sexing technologies to eliminate day-old chick culling.

By combining optical and non-optical techniques, they aim to deliver industry-ready solutions.

They have extensively reviewed scientific and patent literature, publishing a systematic review and co-authoring white papers advocating for an EU-wide ban on chick and duckling culling.

In this presentation, Simão will share the latest updates on European legislation, newly implemented sexing techniques worldwide, and the future of in-ovo sexing.

Carly has a background in Genetics and has held diverse roles at FAI, supporting research projects in commercial and trials settings, managing strategic programmes with FAI’s industry partners, and guiding the development of FAI’s data platforms to support farming and supply chain insight.

Alongside Lakes Free Range Egg Co and partners Newcastle University and UK ATC, FAI were recently awarded an Innovate grant for FLOCKWISE, a 3-year project to spearhead the integration of real-time hen health and behaviour indicators for laying hens to address key flock challenges and improve performance and sustainability of egg production.

Fiona has over twenty years' research experience and a further seven in industry, with previous employers including ADAS, Anpario and Rumenco.

Within the UK Agri-Tech Centre, Fiona provides scientific insight and translation of technical research to support industry members and help ensure its impact is realised across the supply chain.

Fiona works closely with industry and academia to bring together consortiums focused on solving industry issues, particularly in the area of nutrition, health, welfare, and sustainability.

In this presentation, Fiona will be covering what the UK Agri-Tech Centre is and what it does following its formation in April last year, as well as introducing some of the poultry research projects they are currently undertaking.

She came to the UK in 2017 as a research assistant at Harper Adams University and for the last seven years has worked in an independent British manufacturer and international distributor of natural feed additives for animal health, nutrition, and biosecurity.

Now, she works as a commercial poultry nutritionist for Trouw Nutrition which is a global leader in innovative feed specialties, premixes and nutritional services for the animal nutrition industry.

Last year, she completed her Nuffield scholarship which was entitled ‘Feed Efficiency and Targeted Genetic Selection as the Key for Sustainable Performance and Profitability in Laying Hens’.

During her time as a scholar, she investigated whether feed efficiency and targeted genetic selection hold the key to performance and profitability in laying hens. She focused on feed additives, robotics and artificial intelligence, and genetic selection tools.