Béatrice and Samuel: Running a tight ship in egg production

Egg farmer Samuel Lanctôt of Ferme Bec-O Lanctôt and agri‑advisor Béatrice Hamel of Sollio & Vivaco Agriculture coopérative see themselves as a ship’s crew, scanning for waves before they hit.

“Samuel’s the captain. And I’m the one in the crow’s nest, eyes on the horizon,” says Béatrice. For both Samuel and Béatrice, having a successful layer farm is about observing the birds and sweating the details. “We’re proactive,” adds Samuel. “We try to solve problems before they come up.”

In addition to sharing a similar outlook, Samuel and Béatrice both have analytical minds. Béatrice holds a master’s degree in animal science and spent a few years in research and development. That knowledge and experience serve her well in her role as an agri‑advisor.

Samuel also holds a master’s degree in animal science. He started raising layer hens in 2019 thanks to a start‑up grant from Québec’s federation of egg farmers, Fédération des producteurs d’œufs du Québec. He built his laying facility (an enriched cage system housing approximately 15,500 hens) on the family dairy farm in Compton, in the Eastern Townships. He also has a section for raising layer hens, which gives him more control over his egg production.

High standards, high output

Béatrice visits the farm once every two weeks. She inspects the hens and eggs and analyzes the mortality, ventilation, laying, and feed data. “I ask Samuel a lot of questions, too, to find out if there have been any changes since my last visit,” she says. “We definitely challenge each other on the numbers, and I adjust the recommendations based on our conclusions.”

According to her, working with egg farmers who understand the value of those kinds of details makes her job as an agri‑advisor much easier. “I’m mostly there to suggest minor adjustments and act as a sounding board.”

At Ferme Bec-O Lanctôt, all that observation and attention to detail clearly pays off: the birds are calm and the eggs are plentiful. “Things were going so well that we had to adjust the feed and create our own recipes, because the eggs were growing too quickly!” laughs Béatrice.

The strength of the Sollio Agriculture network

Samuel wants to bring the farm’s carbon footprint way down. He and his wife Delphie even opened a self‑serve stand where people from the village can pick up fresh eggs, shortening the distance from farm to table.

On a larger scale, Samuel had an audit performed to calculate the farm’s GHG emissions. He plans to bring them down in the coming years by tackling manure management, among other things.

Whatever the project, Samuel knows he can count on the support of the Sollio Agriculture network. “There’s Béatrice, obviously, but the whole poultry team is also there if I need specific expertise,” he says.

As a Vivaco Coopérative member, Samuel can also count on the Fonds coopératif d’aide à la relève agricole. And for help with accounting, he uses the AgConnexion portal. “The next step is to start using Aviscan to save time analyzing our production data,” he says.

For Samuel, the support and guidance he gets from Sollio Agriculture help him stay the course. “As a captain, sometimes you’re too close to the helm. It’s important to keep an eye on the horizon. That’s what Béatrice is there for.”