One of the things that the Ministry of Agriculture told us when we met the other day was that our expectations were too high. Kambula has a contract to supply a catering company with 1500kg of chicken portions, but they only want portions from chickens that were at least 1.2 kgs. So we are aiming for our farmers being able to reliably produce chickens whose dressed weight is 1.2 kgs. Some of our farmers have managed to do this, and some have failed. And National Chicks (our supplier) believes that these are the weights we should be hitting by day 33. But the Ministry told us that we shouldn't expect our chickens to be that big by day 35.
So yesterday, we showed them. The farmer who finished yesterday ended with a mortality around 30. That's only about 3% mortality, which is at least as good as most commercial farms. And almost all of her chickens were above 1.2kg. Needless to say, she will make quite a bit of money when all the figures are in.
So that necessitated smiles all around the office.
Have a good weekend,
-Ben
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