I lost 147 chickens due to loadshedding – small farmer back to square one

An emerging chicken farmer woke up with excitement to check on his baby chickens. But instead he came to the terrible realisation that 147 of them had died due to unexpected loadshedding.

UNEMPLOYED MAN TURNS TO CHICKEN FARMING

This knocked the small business of Kebonang Mogaadile, an unemployed geologist just outside Mahikeng. Mogaadile turned to chicken farming after losing his job during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, he was teaching English in China.

“I started my business in June 2020 after I lost my job… I came back home and I started a chicken farm. I have been running the business since then,” he told The South African.  

Working with a partner, who is also unemployed, the two started with 30 chickens. The business, Crescendo Poultry Farm, has grown to between 300 and 400 chickens per cycle.

LOADSHEDDING LEADS TO LOSS OF SCORES OF CHICKS

With the ongoing loadshedding, Mogaadile has found an alternative heat source to help the small chicks grow.

“Loadshedding during the day is easy because I can have external sources of heat. Like setting up a fire barrel, which I also use when the power is out at night.”

But in the early hours of Friday morning, the blackouts kicked in. Mogaadile said this happened at a time when it was not initially scheduled.

The sudden power cuts left the chickens with no heat source. The chicks instead tried to cluster together to create warmth, the farmer said.

“The chickens were trying to keep warm that night, so, they ended up stepping on each other and they died. And in the morning when I woke up, 147 chickens were gone.”

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This meant that the self-employed farmer lost out on R11 760 due to the unexpected power cuts.

“It is a major setback because we were out of business for almost two months because of a shortage of chicks. And then we finally got chicks. We invested the money that we had, and now we have lost a lot of money… We have to go back to square one and try to save up and get more chicks to start up the business again,” he said.

LOADSHEDDING LEADS TO TERRIBLE SETBACKS FOR FARM

Not only do chickens die due to the loadshedding, but the growth of chickens is also impacted. A two-hour power cut can result in the death of a day-old chick, Mogaadile explained.

“From the first to the seventh day after chick hatched, it requires external heat source. As they grow older, they can then regulate body heat,” he said.

But instead, loadshedding delays that growing process.

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“Once they are older, if they didn’t get enough heat, it then delays the growth process and we end up taking longer to grow the chickens.

Instead of the usual four to six weeks to grow the chicks, they end up being underweight at the sixth week due to power cuts.

The only solution is to totally get off the grid as power supply is “seriously unreliable”, he said.

“We regularly get casual workers to help us with the slaughtering and looking after the chickens. Now if we don’t have an income, it means they also don’t have an income. We don’t have anything to live on. The loss has seriously impacted on the business. We regularly have to buy equipment and we were expanding the business. Now it’s going to take longer for that to happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eskom announced this week that loadshedding will continue into next week.