By Charles Bourns, broiler grower, Gloucestershire
It’s funny how, when you are watching something on television, it triggers a thought. I was watching the opening of the Commonwealth Games and at one point the commentator said that in the 1950s the country was short of labour and the Government passed a bill that allowed industry to bring in labour from abroad. So then you saw workers coming from Ireland, the West Indies, Asia and east Africa, and this struck a chord with me because we, as a country – let alone as an industry – are in a similar position.
But there is one major difference. In the 1950s, a large number of politicians were also businessmen and thought like such, whereas now we are run by professional politicians who put themselves first and the country second and are therefore not prepared to make the common sense decision and let more workers in to keep the country progressing and not stagnating.
When you think that the poultry industry in 1955 grew five million chickens a year, the fact that now it is over a billion shows what a success story it is and what a big shame it would be if we were to go backwards.
That brings me on to another topic. I was lucky when the industry was hit by the extreme weather of 40 degrees, as I had four-day old chicks, but we have just gone through the last amber heatwave and I know how hard it is to look after the farm, working at night when the birds are cool and can eat. What has annoyed me is the attitude of those who really do not know what it is like and do not trust the farmer to look after his livestock, almost taking the attitude that they know best. They then use this as a stick to beat intensive farming with.
We farmers will take action to help get rid of this problem, and I feel we need to look at the design of the modern chicken shed, as most ventilation systems have been designed to create good litter, but not with extreme heat in mind. Some believe ventilation rates need looking at, but I was always told that once the temperature in Fahrenheit combined with humidity went above 180 degrees, you are in trouble.
I lost chicken in my second crop in 1990 and ever since then I have over-fanned my shed and you can see their feathers moving, which seems to work. I have not put in misters yet as in the West Country, where we do get high humidity, they do not always help.
I come back to my fundamental point that the industry – whether it be eggs or poultrymeat – has built its success on providing the customer with a great affordable, healthy and safe product, unsubsidised. Like any successful industry, we do have problems from time to time, but because we live or die in the market we overcome these problems as fast as we can, adopt new ideas and then go forward again.
My ask is that for anyone who has a good idea that will help us become even more successful to let us know – if not, let us get on with the job in hand and stop knocking us and showing their ignorance and bigotry.