By Charles Bourns, broiler grower
What a time of it with this continuous dry, hot weather. At least our chicken have gone into the factory, albeit a few days late, which has given us a short turnaround, but anyway the new chicks are now in. The packer I send my chicken into does not catch the birds if the temperature rises above 30 degrees. I prefer that to everyone struggling.
The weather has set me wondering: should we change the way our houses are designed? I know we can put in misters, but these cannot always be used if the humidity level becomes too high. We can also install more big fans, but with the modern house they are quite tall. Looking at countries where the weather is hot, the chicken houses tend to be lower, and yes, they then tunnel-vent the sheds, sometimes drawing the air into the house through water screens. When I first started, I rented a farm, an old breeder farm, and it had false ceilings, which seemed to protect the shed from the extreme temperatures.
On top of looking at the houses, the whole industry needs to see if it should invest to allow it to function in the hotter climate, whether this be in the chick delivery lorries being properly air-conditioned, like they have in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, or in facilities in the processing plant to keep the birds comfortable when they arrive at the factory. I make all these comments as I look at my farm, where the buildings were originally built in 1975, although we completely refurbished them now 9 years ago. Time flies by, so the houses built today could well be producing chicken until 2077, when temperatures are predicted to be upwards of 45 degrees on a regular basis. A friend of mine has a flat in Spain, and they sent me a WhatsApp showing the temperature: 48.3 degrees.
Anyway, these are just my comments as I see it. I am sure there are wiser people than me working on the ideal solution going forward.
I attended the magazine’s awards ceremony the other night, and it gave me tremendous pleasure to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to James Hook. The awards were at a new venue, and all those around me really enjoyed it. I would also encourage those who are thinking of entering to do so, as the winners’ standards are becoming higher each year, and the awards are a celebration of our fantastic industry as a whole.
I would just finish by hoping you all manage to get some downtime during this summer, as I know this continued heat is really stressful to all.