Mitchel Hanlon has a long association with the poultry industry having worked on a number of poultry projects in the 1990s and 2000s for Baiada and Pace Farms. His master’s thesis topic addressed the impact of exotic disease outbreak on the poultry industry as well as other intensive animal farming sectors such as pork and cattle.

In 2004, Mitchel Hanlon Consulting was engaged to undertake environmental assessment, prepare the necessary planning documents and undertake detailed survey and civil engineering design for the "Valdimah Park" 5-shed broiler farm project at Somerton for the Roach family. in 2006, Mitchel Hanlon Consulting was approached to undertake similar tasks for the development of a larger 12-shed farm for the Hebblewhite family at their "Moana" site also at Somerton.

The difficulty for both projects was negotiating the sometimes difficult community engagement process. We were successful in gaining development consent for both developments and a workable pollution control licence for the "Moana" site.