Plans unveiled for new poultry shed at Perthshire chicken farm

A Perthshire poultry farm is seeking permission to build a new chicken rearing shed near Meikleour.

JSR Services from Blairgowrie wants to construct a unit capable of housing up to 32,000 birds at Norwood Farm.

Planning documents, submitted to Perth and Kinross Council reveal chicks would be delivered to the site as day-old birds and reared in the buildings for 16 weeks.

At this point they would be ready to lay and would go to supply the firm’s existing free-range egg units with replacement birds.

The interior of the shed would include a series of tiered perches, with the birds fed using an automated system and given up to 14 hours of daylight per day.

All manure would be exported and sold as fertiliser on agricultural land.

The company is also asking the council to approve two feed silos, an extension to the existing hardstanding and associated works.

The application has been submitted on the firm’s behalf by Ian Pick Associates.

JSR Services already raises 60,000 chickens across Perthshire, Stirlingshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

Norwood Farm has three existing poultry units and the fourth would be the biggest yet.

The proposed location of the new shed is currently agricultural land.

Architects drawings show the new structure would be 5.6 metres high, with the two feed bins at a similar elevation.

Scottish Water and Cadent Gas Ltd have requested that no work should begin until the organisations have had an opportunity conduct full assessments.