The chickens are meant to be Ms Tshuma’s grand retirement
plan, after she recently moved back to the country from South Africa where she
was based for over 20 years. Now, after losing 160 of her birds, she finds
herself asking fellow farmers that own dogs to buy the birds so she can recoup
some of her losses. Ms Tshuma, who ventured into poultry farming in October
last year, lost around 50 broilers from the first batch of 2 700. Despite the
loss, she said her profit margins were not greatly affected.
“All along, I was based in South Africa, but as more people
were coming back home I also decided to come back at the end of 2022 to settle
down and venture into agricultural projects. I decided to do poultry sometime
in October and started with a batch of 2 700 chicks though my fowl run does
have a capacity for more. However, due to the heatwave that we experienced
sometime in November I lost more or less than 50 broilers. This did not eat
much into my profit because in value that was about US$250 that I had lost.”
She said she decided to do her second batch in which she
recently suffered a huge loss of 164 chickens that were about four weeks old
due to heat stress. Usually, according to poultry experts, most commercial
broilers reach slaughter weight between five and six weeks of age.
“Losing 164 broilers was a huge blow to my poultry
business. In values that is over US$820 lost. Mind you for the numbers I have
of 2 700, a lot of things are needed, unlike in those backyard-run projects.
Most of the expenses go towards feed, vaccines, disinfections and equipment,
among other things.”
She said due to the high temperatures and with a labour
force of three people, her included, they have sleepless nights for six weeks
to ensure they do not continue losing more broilers. When a Sunday News crew
visited her plot on Friday afternoon, Ms Tshuma was in her fowl run which has a
metal roofing, spraying the broilers to ensure they remain cool.
“If I do not do this we continue to lose more. We have to
continuously spray them during the day and at night that is when they eat when
the temperatures have dropped. It means we also have to take turns monitoring
them. So it would be an intense six weeks for us from brooding until the time
for slaughter.”
Experts say chronic heat stress has detrimental effects on
the performance of broiler birds reared in the open-sided poultry houses,
principally through reducing feed intake, growth rate, negatively affecting
feed efficiency and carcass quality and health.
“My wish is if I could get assistance or an investor
willing to invest in solarised fans and heaters, lighting and other necessary
equipment, among other things. This will go a long way to improve the business.
Once such issues have been addressed, I will also be able to create employment,
especially for the youths that continue to destroy their lives by doing drugs.”
Ms Tshuma said coming back and venturing into agriculture
was a way of taking heed to the Second Republic’s call to come back and invest
in the country. She said agriculture was one sector that was doing well in the
country and with sufficient support women farmers such as her would thrive and
positively contribute to the attainment of Vision 2030 of an upper
middle-income status.
Matabeleland South Provincial Veterinary Services Director
Dr Enat Mdlongwa said the environment of broiler chickens needed to be
controlled all the time.
“It is a huge task to keep the required temperatures inside
a fowl run. Chickens need proper ventilation systems. These types (broiler) of
chickens are delicate and need to be treated with care. Poultry farmers need to
thoroughly put in place foul runs that are spacious and positioned in an
environment friendly for the birds,” he said.
In their findings, researchers in poultry physiology and
management Lara and Rostagno indicate that chickens’ feed consumption drops by
five percent for every one-degree Celsius increase in temperature between 32
degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius.
When the ambient temperature increases to 34 degrees
Celsius, the mortality due to heat stress would be very high in broilers by 8,4
percent and the feed intake of the chicken decreases from 108,3g/bird/day at
31,6 degrees Celsius to 68,9g/bird/day at 37,9 degrees Celsius, and the egg
production would reduce by 6,4 percent. Feed intake in broilers is reduced by
16,4 percent when they are subjected to chronic heat stress, and body weight is
lowered by 32,64 percent. Sunday News
0 comments:
Post a Comment