A John Deere Publication
Hens from top genetics suppliers adapt well to free-range living. The Ekko Huevos name is a play on the Spanish words for "Organic Eggs."
Agriculture, Livestock/Poultry September 01, 2026
On the Wings of Love
Argentine farmers turn their dream into a reality.
Story and Photos by Steve Werblow
When bar and grocery store owner Pablo Campiti read that organic, free-range eggs could be helpful to his son, who has autism, he vowed to make sure young Vicente had all the eggs he needed. Then he found that his native Argentina didn't have a commercial organic, free-range producer. Partnering with his friend Carlos Mior—who had spent 6 years studying chicken behavior and learning about European free-range egg production—the two innovators created Ekko Huevos in the little town of Aldao, about 200 miles north of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. Call it a labor of love.
The love is evident when Campiti talks about Vicente, and when Mior talks about chickens. And it's apparent when stepping into the 164-by-46-foot hen house, where the usual chicken clamor is replaced by a quiet "whirr."
"Look here," says Addy Rossi of Catedra Avicola, Argentina's top poultry radio network. "Normally, when you enter a warehouse with hens, the noise is tremendous. Here, it's quiet."
First one. But like a duck gliding smoothly across a pond while its feet paddle furiously out of view, the calm at Ekko Huevos doesn't even hint at the challenges Campiti and Mior overcame to establish the business.
It was tough enough picking up tons of imported Belgian equipment at the docks in Buenos Aires at the height of the Covid lockdowns, and it was hard work building the structure to house 6,000 birds. But the biggest challenge was introducing the business to Argentina's agricultural regulatory authority, Senasa, whose inspectors had never encountered commercial free-range production. There were no rules for regulating the new farm.
"We invited them, and we explained what we were doing and how it works," says Campiti in Spanish. "They created a protocol and legal framework for this style of production."
That took two years. During that time, Ekko Huevos eggs sold for the same price as conventional Animal Welfare-certified eggs, which made for lean times.
Today, the farm's eggs sell for approximately 30% over the price of conventional eggs, Campiti says, though Ekko Huevos' stocking rate is one-quarter of a conventional cage operation. Ekko Huevos keeps its costs low with minimal infrastructure, low electricity bills because they don't use lights to create artificial daylight, and no antibiotics. On Mior's 400 acres, the pair grows corn to feed the birds and keep their ration bills down.
Above. Ekko Huevos hens produce about 14,000 eggs daily. Carlos Mior (left) and Pablo Campiti (right) had to help Argentine authorities develop a regulatory framework for organic, free-range eggs.
Afternoon alfalfa. Every afternoon—except those when Campiti and Mior are warned to keep their flock inside to avoid contact with wild birds that might be carrying avian influenza—Ekko Huevos' hens amble into an alfalfa field next to their hen house. The hens are conditioned to lay eggs in the morning, so few eggs are lost in the pasture during afternoon forays.
The birds peck away at the green fodder and hunt for insects in the soil. Alfalfa does not make up a substantial part of their diet, but Mior says walking around the field and acting like chickens contributes to the birds' health and the quality of their eggs.
It's a traditional life for the chickens, but Ekko Huevos is quite modern. Lohmann and Hyline hens start laying at 6 months and work until they are 2 years old, when the birds are sold for meat. Both sides of the house are cleaned and left empty for 4 to 6 weeks to break pest cycles. Then Campiti and Mior introduce a new flock of 16-week-old pullets.
It turns out Ekko Huevos came online just in time to feed an exploding Argentine demand for eggs and to help a supermarket chain—which sells 90% of Ekko Huevos' eggs—keep its promise to buy only cage-free eggs by 2028.
But most important, young Vicente gets his organic eggs.
"It's all for him," says Campiti, getting a little choked up. "My life is for him. He is my North." ‡
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