After letdowns, I invested in automatic poultry unit

When you first step into the 25-acre Nereus Poultry farm, you will assume it is a factory of sorts because of the giant steel building.

Unless you are conversant with such a structure, from the outside you will see a facility with unique windows, giant ventilation spaces and beams.

Indeed, this is modern poultry farming at its best, the farm’s Jibek Luusa, the co-director and proprietor, tells Smart Harvest team as she ushers them into the unit nestled deep inside Kyawango village, Machakos County.

Controls heat and light

Ms Luusa has invested in a Sh25 million poultry facility and she hopes it will significantly multiply her yields.

The technology dubbed Environmentally Controlled House (EC House), offers optimum environment for light, temperature and humidity for thousands of birds for maximum production.

On this day, the technology is being officially unveiled and Luusa has invited a team of journalists to witness the milestone.

“This EC House is 120 by 50 metre structure and it cost me an arm and a leg. But the good thing is that it is worth every coin. It is like a perfect poultry house that ensures birds are so comfortable they give the farmer maximum yields,” says Luusa.

Luusa who is married to a Kenyan — Mr Marshal Luusa — who co-owns the venure, made forays in poultry farming in 2015 with 2,000 broiler chicks.

Frustrations

But the frustrations that she faced with the traditional farming system drove her to invest in a modern unit.

“I began with this makeshift structure. But the birds kept on getting sick and dying because of the unfavourable environment like cold and poor ventilation,” she says pointing at the dilapidated structure where she started from.

It was pure stress, she says.

“It was hectic with little returns owing to the many challenges I was experiencing,” Luusa explains.

Dying of cold

She says, it involved practically watching over the birds grow day by day, to monitor if they had fallen ill.

The journey had so many thorns she almost gave up.

She faced enough losses since the chicks would die almost every day.

But in 2017 she saw the light.

After doing intense research on revolutionary poultry rearing systems, she learnt of the Big Dutchman, who are behind the Environmentally Controlled House in Kenya.

On the day of the interview, the Big Dutchman CEO Roland Denz is here for a handover of the unit following a successful dry run to test the technology.

So how does this technology work?

“EC House can hold 40,800 broiler chicks. It is environmentally safe and maximises on yields,” Denz says.

With it he says, farmers can check on factors such as temperature, lighting and humidity and regulate them in line with best practice for high yields.

“The environment can control spread of diseases when people enter the unit unlike other traditional non controlled poultry systems,” Denz says.

The structure is quite sophisticated.

Automatic refill of feeds

Inside it, it has fans that run continuously, coolers and feeder pans that refill whenever they run empty.

“The technology is so sophisticated in the event the system does not work, the person in charge is notified via their smart phone,” Denz says.

Cuts on labour costs

It also cuts on labour costs since it is fully automated.

A maximum of three people can work in the EC house, he says.

This saves the farmer on labour costs.

This is a plus to farmers like Jibek who previously had 15 permanent employees, eating into the profit margins.

According to Denz, though the initial investment is prohibitive —Sh25 million—there is a handsome return on investment in less than two years.

Kenchic Ltd’s CEO Jim Tozer, who Nereus Farm has contracted to manage the farm confirm these facts.

“Returns are guaranteed if you do your things right. This is because it only requires a farmer Sh170 to feed one bird and another Sh4 for medication which includes vaccination and Vitamins to bring in a return of up to Sh20 per chick,” Tozer says.

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