Why did the chicken farm want high-speed internet? To improve efficiency, the quality of the product and the health of its animals.
OK, don’t get your feathers in a bunch; it’s not a particularly funny “yolk.” But when Eisses Farm Fresh Eggs made the switch to better, more reliable service a year ago, it did so with the best of intentions in mind.
“This keeps us right in tune with everything that’s going on on the property and the farm for the animals,” manager Jeff Wohlgemuth said Friday. “The internet gives us 24-hour access directly into the parameters of the farm. This is a top-notch facility and we try to run it that way.”
Eisses, which has been in operation at its current Innisfil Beach Road site since 1989, now has tens of thousands of hens, which lay close to 55,000 eggs per day.
“We had an older style barn back in those (early) days; it was very limiting,” Wohlgemuth said. “Everything is now monitored by the internet — temperature, ventilation, feeding. We have access to it with our cell phones now. We can really keep track of everything that’s going on. Even our tractors are on GPS.”
Operations have become so smooth that the Ontario government used Eisses as an example Dec. 6 for a photo-op to demonstrate the importance of bringing high-speed internet to nearly 12,600 rural homes and businesses throughout Simcoe County over the last few years.
“We understand the total importance of connecting rural businesses, rural communities, rural residents,” Ministry of Rural Affairs parliamentary assistant Steve Pinsonneault said. “The world has turned — you need internet everywhere. High-speed internet has become a mandatory utility within your business. We are working diligently forward to getting that done.”
In 2021, the provincial government pledged $4 billion to expand reliable, high-speed internet to underserved communities across the province by the end of 2025.
“We knew going into (government) in 2018 that rural internet was one of those things that needed to be tackled,” Pinsonneault said. “We’ve taken it head on. We are covering ground. We are making great progress.”
For more information on the province’s internet expansion plan, visit ontario.ca.
