0:00:06 > 0:00:12In the UK, each and every day, we eat more than two million chickens.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17One in three comes from a single company in Northern Ireland.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Good afternoon. Moy Park.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26That's nearly 10,000 tonnes a week of fillets, nuggets,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29drumsticks and Kievs.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Very little of the chicken is actually lost.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34All that we lose is the cock-a-doodle-do. Everything else, we sell.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40From farm to fork, it's a business worth billions.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43She's cross with me working all the time.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46I don't know why. She likes the money.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51This massive operation takes a small army of farmers,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55factory workers, technicians and tasters.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57That's maybe just a wee bit hard.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00It might be a wee bit hard.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Meet...the chicken people.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16PHONE BEEPS
0:01:16 > 0:01:17Good afternoon. Moy Park.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19'My name is Joan Crozier.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22'I am the telephonist/receptionist in Moy Park.'
0:01:23 > 0:01:24He's back from Craigavon.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27'I wouldn't like to work in the factory part, I couldn't do it.'
0:01:27 > 0:01:30I couldn't bear all that noise of machinery and...
0:01:30 > 0:01:32PHONE BEEPS LOUDLY
0:01:32 > 0:01:33- Is that...?- Oh, yeah.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35See, I was so taken in there, I was...
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Good afternoon. Moy Park.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42Just a moment, please.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48People in Northern Ireland know who Moy Park is.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51There's a certain generation, we're all starting to grey little bit,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53that remembers the banjo-playing chicken.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55# Moy Park chicken
0:01:55 > 0:01:56# The tender, tasty chicken
0:01:56 > 0:01:59# It's tender, tasty chicken from Moy Park... #
0:01:59 > 0:02:00So people know who Moy Park are.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03They have no idea, I think, of the scale of the business.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13The Moy Park empire employs more than 12,000 people...
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Shut up!
0:02:17 > 0:02:19..from every walk of life...
0:02:19 > 0:02:22A wee bit of time away from the desk is very welcome, so it is, yeah.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Roosters are the most vicious.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Those boys would just take the ankles clean off you.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30..all working at a furious pace...
0:02:30 > 0:02:32No-one touch these, OK?
0:02:32 > 0:02:34Just lean over it.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38..to satisfy our love of chicken.
0:02:38 > 0:02:39Absolutely beautiful.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44I'd better go before he kills me.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50It certainly is a lovely, free way of life.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55- Don't... Don't paint it too good. - Oh, no, it's very hard!
0:02:55 > 0:02:58I never really particularly liked chickens, if I'm honest.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02It is relentless.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Every week, we are producing five million fresh chickens.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07And at any moment in time,
0:03:07 > 0:03:08we will have somewhere in the region
0:03:08 > 0:03:11of 40 million chickens on the ground.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14If I wanted to come back as a chicken,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16I'd certainly want to be a free-range chicken.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19If they got the better of you,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21I would say you would have to worry.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23You're in their territory.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25Just take it nice and slow.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28We've got less than, very often, 12 hours
0:03:28 > 0:03:30from the time that we get the order
0:03:30 > 0:03:33to get that product onto the customer's shelf.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39These lines are running at about 18,000 birds per hour.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44This line I like to see full.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46If it is full, we're making some money, so we are.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53So in the last five minutes that we've been chatting,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58our chicken have consumed somewhere in the region of ten tonnes of feed.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01They have produced 5,000 eggs.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04We've processed 3,000 birds.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07And we've produced about 10,000 consumer packs.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Now, that's not bad for five minutes, is it?
0:04:20 > 0:04:22For the factory workers clocking on at Moy Park's
0:04:22 > 0:04:26primary processing plants in Ballymena and Dungannon,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29it's the beginning of another day on the production lines.
0:04:35 > 0:04:36Oh, they're not here.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41But for manager Jim Trotter, things are already off to a busy start.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Have you seen Jo about?
0:04:43 > 0:04:45I'm Jim Trotter and I'm the production manager
0:04:45 > 0:04:48here in Moy Park, Dungannon.
0:04:48 > 0:04:49Lovely smell.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Such is teamwork.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53First thing, anyway,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56I like to try and talk to as many people as I can face to face.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Jo, where are you?
0:04:59 > 0:05:03My job is about making sure our people are performing
0:05:03 > 0:05:06and looking to try and make sure they have the tools to do the job
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and that we're helping them as much as possible.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Now, come on in here to the operations office, will you?
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I was looking for Jo, there. I couldn't get her. Erm...
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Livers were...
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Orders have gone through the roof.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Our orders come in. We check the orders.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Make sure all of our lines are manned up appropriately.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30And, long story short, make sure that the orders are produced in time
0:05:30 > 0:05:32to get into the lorries to be delivered to the customer.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35What are you going to be like for size?
0:05:35 > 0:05:36I've got two.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39I know you've got two, but I need six tonne.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41HE SIGHS DEEPLY
0:05:42 > 0:05:43That's us now back to the floor.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Hopefully, most things sorted, initially.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48And take it from there, then.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56But it's out here on the factory floor,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59where thousands of birds are processed every hour,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02that things really start to kick off for Jim.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The first hour, a bit hectic. It is a bit hectic.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07And it's the same every morning.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13We can be processing 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 birds per hour.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17And as the day goes on, as things change, you have to be flexible.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Going past line five, they're all sitting and they're not moving,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22while line four is on the move all the time.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24It's people management.
0:06:24 > 0:06:25It's not a magic wand.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28As long as the machinery works, it's all about us
0:06:28 > 0:06:30just getting the stuff packed properly,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32customer spec and out the door.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And we do it right well, I think. We do it right well.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41A little over a month ago,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43long before they reached Jim's production lines,
0:06:43 > 0:06:47these birds were just a twinkle in their mother's eye.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49At Moy Park's breeding farms,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52the chickens have only one thing on their minds...
0:06:52 > 0:06:54sexy time.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01COCK CROWS
0:07:03 > 0:07:07It's here that the eggs that will become your chicken dinners get laid.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11As do the chickens.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13COCK CROWS
0:07:13 > 0:07:15The cockerel's job is just mating all the time, I guess.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18That's the job he's here to do.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20COCK CROWS
0:07:20 > 0:07:22There's no chocolate,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24there's no romance, there's no flowers.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29The rooster has a good job in here.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31So, yeah, sex all the time.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37As if that wasn't enough, every randy rooster in the house
0:07:37 > 0:07:41gets to choose from an average of ten working girls.
0:07:41 > 0:07:42Yeah, they're my babies.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45There's 9,000 in this house,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47plus 900 roosters.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53And some of these boys take their work so seriously
0:07:53 > 0:07:56they make quite an impression on the ladies.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Whenever a hen loses...
0:07:59 > 0:08:01You see the hen loses feathers?
0:08:01 > 0:08:04That's the rooster jumping on top of it and mating with it.
0:08:06 > 0:08:07And that's what we want to see.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Whenever you see a loss of feathers on the back,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14that lets you know that hen's working.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17This is the nest.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21So the hens go in and lay their eggs.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23You'll see a few in there at the minute.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27The hens go and lay their egg there.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29Once they lay their egg, they never see it.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31It runs away on the conveyor belt there.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33And according to Kevin,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37there's no great secret to keeping his girls happy.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40You do as little to annoy them as possible.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42She's a typical woman.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43Temperamental.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51Our insatiable appetite for chicken means that Moy Park
0:08:51 > 0:08:54is always on the lookout for new recipes,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58which is why they employ a specialist team of development chefs.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Product development chef is quite a strange job.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Not a lot of people know what we do.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10What we're trying to do here is create a restaurant-style dish
0:09:10 > 0:09:12and upscale that so we can make thousands of them
0:09:12 > 0:09:13in a factory every day.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Food is a part of everything we do.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23We're always looking for new things, new ideas, new flavours.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24The sauce isn't great.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27I think, as a chef team, you know,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30we're really starting to drive that into the business.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35So, barbecue 2016 - inspiration.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Today, the chefs are brainstorming new ideas for barbecue season
0:09:39 > 0:09:41and the world is, literally, their oyster.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44We know South America is going to be big, that will have to be a key.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46That's almost, from a flavour point of view,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49- we need it to be an offshoot of South America on its own.- Right. OK.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Because you'll drill down, that covers Brazil...
0:09:51 > 0:09:53It covers all of South America.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Moy Park are very forward-thinking as a business. They're happy...
0:09:57 > 0:09:58At least I think they're happy.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01..to send me around the world, essentially,
0:10:01 > 0:10:02to look at, sort of, food trends.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06I'm hoping to go to the States to sort of eat some barbecue food.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10I'll feed that one back to you, how that one went.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12I'm recently back from South America,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14where I was in Brazil, Peru, Argentina.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17And I was there, basically, to eat food.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20It's bread? Just bread?
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Is that chicken?
0:10:26 > 0:10:28You always have the cynics that will say it's a great thing to do.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30But if you're a food business,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32you don't get everything off the internet.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34You need to sort of go out and experience these things.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35As much as it was only a snapshot
0:10:35 > 0:10:37of being there for, you know, a couple of weeks,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41I'm much better, more up to speed with what Peruvian food is,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43what Argentinian food is, what Brazilian food is.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Let's look at how far we can push things with our customers
0:10:46 > 0:10:48with the likes of Peruvian food, Brazilian food.
0:10:48 > 0:10:49You know, it's...
0:10:49 > 0:10:52We're not going to sell any chicken heads, I don't think, but...
0:10:52 > 0:10:55The product development team and the executive chefs,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58I mean, they're just fabulous guys. They are a breed of their own.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00They travel the world.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02They come back with these fantastic ideas.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03I love it when they come back.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05We all love it, because then we get to sample their ideas.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Just last week, we were tasting some fantastic products.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13I can't say, because, obviously, it's top secret at the moment.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16But we believe that it'll be the next chicken Kiev
0:11:16 > 0:11:18or the next Southern-fried chicken.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20We're always looking for the next product
0:11:20 > 0:11:22that the consumers will absolutely love.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Whatever their top-secret new recipe is,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30you can be sure it will end up here
0:11:30 > 0:11:33at Craigavon's secondary processing plant.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38On these lines, chicken meat from Ballymena and Dungannon
0:11:38 > 0:11:41gets turned into all manner of things.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Goujons, mini fillets,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48chicken burgers and, of course, the nation's favourite Ukrainian dish...
0:11:48 > 0:11:50chicken Kievs.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56I'm Paul Conway, the section leader.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58So I'm doing my part.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Today, I'm in charge of line four, the Kiev line.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08We'll get through, case wise, probably 8,000 or 9,000 cases.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13Which is eight to a batch and two to a tray.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Which is 16 Kiev to every batch, so it is.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21So that's 8,000 or 9,000 multiplied by 16, which is...whatever that is.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24In the big man's defence,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27I don't think Stephen Hawking knows a lot about chicken, either.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Ever since they were introduced in the 1970s,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38chicken Kievs have been one of the nation's favourites.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42But here on the production lines, they're not always quite so popular.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46It definitely used to be the case that,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49if you were not pulling your weight or not doing the job,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51the Kiev line was the place where they would have said,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53"If you don't do what you're told to do,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55"you're going to end up on line four moulding Kievs."
0:12:55 > 0:12:59And, as I say, most people don't like this line.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02But the guys that work here, you couldn't get them to leave.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04Some of these people have worked here for over 20 years
0:13:04 > 0:13:07and they've never left this line because they love it so much.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10The guys here, I'd say they love it, like. They love it, like.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17These are production lines, at the end of the day.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21It is food production. And some of the jobs can be monotonous.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26To some people, this might seem like a monotonous job.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28But the guys get their way through the day
0:13:28 > 0:13:30by having a bit of fun with each other,
0:13:30 > 0:13:31enjoying each other's company,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34having a bit of banter with each other and...
0:13:37 > 0:13:39..packing as fast as they can!
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Oh, there's definitely a buzz
0:13:54 > 0:13:56and I think you can't be a production person
0:13:56 > 0:13:58if you don't have that buzz about you.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02It's in your blood a wee bit, do you know what I mean?
0:14:02 > 0:14:04It's what keeps you going, it's what keeps you interested.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08And it's working with all these different people day in and day out.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Daniel is one of the machine minders.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15He does shifts Monday to Friday, but he's a DJ at the weekend.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17I was watching him earlier, his hands going...
0:14:17 > 0:14:22Being able to communicate with them, work as a team.
0:14:22 > 0:14:23You get to know each other.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25- Is that yours?- No, it's Chris'.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29I don't want to say how the money is, because that's a bit cheesy.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32But it is a really nice place to work.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34And I couldn't work with a better bunch of people.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37INDISTINCT
0:14:40 > 0:14:41Back on the breeding farm,
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Kevin's three chicken houses produce more than 20,000 eggs a day.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48So when it comes to collection time,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52three generations of the Scullion family set to work.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Caoimhe is on the packing trays there. That's my daughter.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02- This is Colette....- Hi.- ..my wife.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Sometimes she doesn't like me saying that.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07- I don't know why.- I don't like being called "the wife".
0:15:07 > 0:15:09This is my father here.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12- 78...- Hello.- ..and still working.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14My son.
0:15:14 > 0:15:1624. Looking for a woman.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Me and my dad had hens from '73, I was only nine years of age.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25Wasn't I a good worker at nine years of age, Dad?
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Oh, you weren't that bad.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32You couldn't do it without them. Definitely not.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35It takes everybody's hand in.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Many hands makes light work.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42I was probably six or seven when my daddy got me down here working.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45I didn't have a choice.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48Packing eggs is the easy part.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52It's what you do inside the hen which is the hard part.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55And if it's not right, it'll not be right out here.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Breeders like Kevin only get paid for an egg
0:16:00 > 0:16:03if it contains a healthy chick.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09And no-one will know that for sure until they reach the hatcheries.
0:16:09 > 0:16:10Like this one in Donoughmore.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15At any one time,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20George Ferguson is surrogate father to as many as six million youngsters.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Shush... They're sleeping.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29These incubators, called setters,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32are Moy Park's answer to Mother Nature.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36We can control the temperatures and humidities
0:16:36 > 0:16:38much tighter than you could with nature
0:16:38 > 0:16:41but, really, we are replicating what the hen would do herself.
0:16:43 > 0:16:44In other words,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49these machines can outperform six million chickens' bottoms.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54After three weeks,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57the chicks are ready for their first glimpse of the big, wide world.
0:16:59 > 0:17:00Ah...
0:17:06 > 0:17:08But there's no time to take in the view.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Almost immediately, the chicks set off
0:17:12 > 0:17:14on a rollercoaster ride of grading and sorting.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18It's sheer POULTRY in motion.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Biff!
0:17:24 > 0:17:27More than a quarter of a million birds a day
0:17:27 > 0:17:29pass along these conveyor belts
0:17:29 > 0:17:33and they all have to be sorted into boy chicks and girl chicks.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38It takes the skills of an experienced chicken sexer,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42yes, really, to spot the difference in less than a second and a half.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Before long, the chicks are counted into crates
0:17:51 > 0:17:53and they're ready for the farm.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01So the chicks are all for broiler production.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04So they will end up going to broiler houses.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10A broiler chick is a chicken that's destined for the tables for eating.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13It's the thing that differs from, you know,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15the chicks that go out for laying purposes.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18These are specifically table birds for eating.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Back in Dungannon, manager Jim is still very much on the move.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30Trotter by name, trotter by nature.
0:18:32 > 0:18:33At the moment, as I'm walking by,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36I'm looking to make sure that the lines are functioning,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39that the lines aren't overmanned.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42We don't want too many people working on each line.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44That the areas that supply us with the meat
0:18:44 > 0:18:46are actually supplying meat.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52It's here in Dungannon that nearly half of Moy Park's
0:18:52 > 0:18:57five million chickens a week become, well, ex-chickens.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Like anything where you're dealing with livestock,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07there is a process where you have to take the live animal
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and you have to convert it into a consumer pack
0:19:10 > 0:19:12or a pack for the public to eat.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18And we have done a lot of work to ensure that that is done
0:19:18 > 0:19:21very humanely so that the birds have got the, I guess,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25the most pleasant transition from being live to being, erm, dead.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29The birds that you see coming out now
0:19:29 > 0:19:32would have been running around at this time yesterday.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But at the moment it's, what, almost ten o'clock.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36If you come back here at one o'clock,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40there'll have been birds that were running around earlier this morning.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Our big thing is, because our orders come in live,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48we'll have some orders that come in at ten o'clock,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50some at 12 o'clock that will have to go out at six.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53We have to make sure that we've scheduled our people,
0:19:53 > 0:19:55scheduled our needs to make sure they produce what we need,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58when we need it to get it out the door.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59Did you see Joanne or any of them in?
0:19:59 > 0:20:01No, I've just seen John earlier on.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03We're busy enough.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05We have to be on top of our early orders,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07which is the big thing this morning.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10But once we get that sorted out, the day should be steady.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13If everything goes smoothly...
0:20:16 > 0:20:18But don't count your chickens yet, Jim.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22One of the conveyor belts has broken down and the orders are stacking up.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Do you want me start it or...?
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Start traying up, OK?
0:20:28 > 0:20:31And if you can, hand feed it through, get them through that way.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33OK? And I'll get somebody up now.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Davey, I need somebody up to line five.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Can you get them up as soon as possible or I'll be hanging?
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Another day in paradise.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46It's not that bad.
0:20:48 > 0:20:49I actually enjoy the bustle.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52It's constantly changing.
0:20:52 > 0:20:53Much damage, boys?
0:20:53 > 0:20:54We've a problem on process one.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58It's going to have a dramatic impact on what we do throughout the day,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00because process one feeds the whole factory.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Under a bit of pressure today, so we are.
0:21:03 > 0:21:04But we'll get there.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07We don't let our customers down, so we'll get there.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Arriving by lorry, thousands of-day-old baby chicks
0:21:19 > 0:21:22are about to get their first glimpse of their new home.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30The chicks will stay here until they're fully grown and ready to eat.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Just over a month from now.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39And farmer Roy Wright can tell that all 25,000 of them
0:21:39 > 0:21:42are already off to a good start.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45They're very good birds, because they're following us about
0:21:45 > 0:21:47and they're following the noise,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50they're stalking, they're coming down.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53What you don't want is the birds sitting in big clumps.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55It means they're not doing well.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57But they're very lively, these ones.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00They usually do OK.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03But sadly, those youthful good looks can't last for ever.
0:22:05 > 0:22:06Just over a month later,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09the fully-grown chickens are ready for the dinner table.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17It's a short stay, but farmers like Jeremy Hobson and his wife Caroline
0:22:17 > 0:22:19try to make it as sweet as possible.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Jeremy has seven chicken houses,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28all about the same size here.
0:22:28 > 0:22:34But five of the houses are full of what they call select birds.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37A select house has a lot of, I suppose,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39what you would call added extras.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45And select houses have glass windows, so they have natural light.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49They can look out and see the sheep and the horses, if they want.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53They have things like play bales scattered all around the house,
0:22:53 > 0:22:58which gives them the opportunity to scratch around and...
0:22:58 > 0:23:00- Act naturally.- Yeah.
0:23:02 > 0:23:08The Hobsons' seven chicken houses hold a total of 165,000 birds.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Collectively referred to as "a crop".
0:23:11 > 0:23:13- A crop of chickens, yes. - That's terrible, isn't it?
0:23:13 > 0:23:15We call it a crop. Not, erm...
0:23:16 > 0:23:19That's just what they're known as, a crop of chickens.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21I could never understand that when I first came here,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23because a crop, as far as I'm concerned,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26is something that you grow in the field and then you harvest.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30I think they could come up with a better word for it than that.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32But they do come in
0:23:32 > 0:23:36and they're out again in such a short period of time.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38It's not like you actually get to know them all.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Not like the sheep or the pigs or anything like that,
0:23:42 > 0:23:44where they all have personalities.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52For a site my size, you really need two people nowadays working it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55And for all the paperwork involved...
0:23:55 > 0:23:57you really need two people at it.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00So basically I'm a secretary, is what he's saying.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02Secretary-cum-skivvy.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Oh...!
0:24:09 > 0:24:14At Craigavon, every eight-hour shift sees around a million packs of food
0:24:14 > 0:24:16dispatched to the supermarkets.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21But nothing is allowed to leave
0:24:21 > 0:24:23unless it meets the rigorous standards
0:24:23 > 0:24:27set by a team of tasters, headed up by Eileen.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32My job is going on the lines
0:24:32 > 0:24:37and randomly picking up samples for our taste panel.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43OK, folks. So the first thing we need to look at is the packaging.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45Packaging, looks, flavour...
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Everything comes under the scrutiny of the experts.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Nothing is left to chance.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54We do sensory analysis training,
0:24:54 > 0:24:58so we actually learn how to pick up the notes,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01like the peppery notes, the flavourings,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03the texture, you know, what's soft.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05But it all depends what the customer is actually looking.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07Food label positioning.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09And good seal.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Nothing escapes their attention.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14They're not only coming in to taste the product.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18They're coming in to make sure that the product is what it should be.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22With everything to play for, anything could go wrong.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Say the Southern-fried portions,
0:25:25 > 0:25:27that they're not being put into the same breaded pack,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31or if we have, say, cheese and ham Kiev...
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Good flavour.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35..it's not pepper Kiev.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38You know, these are all the things that they have to look out for.
0:25:38 > 0:25:39How would you score it?
0:25:42 > 0:25:44- Three?- Three.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46It's no place for the faint-hearted.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Yeah, hot.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Oh, man up!
0:25:51 > 0:25:53We don't really look at it as food in here.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55You know, it's part of a job.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57You don't want to taste it every day
0:25:57 > 0:25:58or we'd all end up the size of a house!
0:26:00 > 0:26:03And just when they think they're out of the woods,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06a leaky Kiev threatens everything.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Just means that the butter, there's butter on top of the steak
0:26:08 > 0:26:10and the butter has just leaked out slightly.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Not necessarily a fail. You'd be allowed a slight leakage.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It's still a dent to the standards, so it is.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18It's a close call.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Everyone in agreement for a green, yeah?
0:26:23 > 0:26:25- Yeah.- Yep.
0:26:25 > 0:26:26Yay!
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Ultimately, the Kiev passes the test.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Southern-flied...fried flavour good?
0:26:32 > 0:26:35The southern flied is lovely!
0:26:35 > 0:26:37That's a new flavour!
0:26:39 > 0:26:42With the seal of approval from the taste team,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45most Moy Park packs are destined for the supermarket.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48But at Craigavon's factory shop,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50there's always the chance for a bargain
0:26:50 > 0:26:53and a quick chat with the shopkeepers, Theresa and Helena.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56These are girls out of the factory
0:26:56 > 0:26:58and they're out on their break shopping.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02And he's walking around and he shouldn't be out until dinner time.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05I shouldn't be. I'm not normally allowed out.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07You hear some stories.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09You see some sights.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15We get lovers that come in kissing and hugging.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17And we get people that come in and they're...
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Maybe a man comes in and his zip's down on his trousers, so...
0:27:20 > 0:27:21Bye!
0:27:21 > 0:27:25If things like that happen, she runs out and leaves me to deal with it.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27And I have to explain to the man, you know,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29"Put your budgie back in his cage."
0:27:33 > 0:27:36We had a wee incident one time where we have a wee man
0:27:36 > 0:27:38and we always called him the Wednesday man.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41A lovely wee chap, but he came in every Wednesday
0:27:41 > 0:27:44and we noticed that he hadn't been in for about eight weeks.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48And then one particular day, Theresa was speaking to his daughter
0:27:48 > 0:27:51and she says, "My daddy was very fond of you two girls.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53"And he passed away."
0:27:53 > 0:27:56A couple of days later, Theresa explained to me and I said,
0:27:56 > 0:27:57"Oh, God love him."
0:27:57 > 0:27:59And it turned out it was the wrong person,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01because he walked in the following Wednesday!
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Next time on The Chicken People...
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Some people describe farming as a disease.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12..it's all about the farmers.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14The roosters are the most vicious.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18Those boys would just take the ankles clean off you.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21These things rip, but...
0:28:21 > 0:28:23These things look incredibly good for 11 days.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28I think it probably is more seen as a man's job.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30But I'll try and prove them wrong.