History of Agricultural Education in Wiltshire - Lackham Countryside ...

Acres, a field which was later leased to Whitehall Farm, whilst Lackham took over
the Rocks on a similar basis. The deep litter house has a rather large droppings pit,
and was originally hand fed, with some rather poorly designed drinkers. It was also
a windowed house and the single speed fans, and hopper type window and inlets, gave
rather poor ventilation.
Some major improvements have taken place in recent years. The battery house
floor has been concreted completely, the drinking troughs replaced by nipple
drinkers, and the cleaning system is now plastic belt, replacing the old electrically
powered scrapers. Despite the replacement of the cage floors on two or three
occasions the cages have served the College remarkably well. Now thirteen years
old, they owe us nothing.
The deep litter house is now fed by an Eltex Briton continuous chain feeder, but we
have resisted the arguments to concrete the floor. The drinkers are really very
efficient, plastic can be a boon in some situations !
So far as breeding is concerned, it is almost incredible to think that a pre-war hen
produced less than 100 eggs, and the average in any self-respecting house is now in
excess of 240, and of late the brown egger with its greater egg size, is slowly but
surely creeping up on the smaller white breeds. Lackham has had its share of good
examples, operating on a policy of giving most companies a fair opportunity. Notable
individual performances have been the Shaver and the Warren, with Sykes and Ross
(formerly Sterling) in close pursuit.
But of course the greatest turn round has been in the table bird industry. We have
not produced broilers as such in any quantity, although the superb Pratten rearing
house could have done. This little house replaced the hay boxes which gave us so
many problems.
But we really made a minor piece of history when, in conjunction with Norman Chinn
at Salisbury College we organised a conference with a record fee for a Further
Education short event. It was a sell-out, showing the great interest in the broiler.
This surprising bird, some individuals reaching marketable weights at six weeks,
revolutionised the table bird industry. Even the capon had taken 20 weeks, and the
cockerel fattened for Christmas was often June hatched.
i .
Perhaps it is appropriate to be writing about it all now that the plans are to run the
unit down. Mrs Beney, Mr Ham, Mr Marchington and Mr Lewis all played their part
and not many realise that the Lackham random sample laying trials were
internationally known. Great strides are currently taking place, the high
temperature house, pressure ventilation and so on are creating much interest. At
the same time rising feed prices with no parallel climb in egg price is forcing units to
expand even larger, the death knell of the small unit such as ours.[i]
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