Irregular energy makes hens and milk cows grumpy
January 21, 2008
By Tom Robbins
Cape Town - The country's largest poultry producer has joined the clarion call for Eskom to give adequate warning about planned power cuts, while dairy farmers have warned that there could be a new milk shortage.
Rainbow Chicken financial director Rob Field said last week that the company was being given less than five minutes' notice by Eskom before power was cut. "We understand the long-term problem, but our biggest gripe is the unpredictability and lack of adequate warning," Field said, adding that this made it a nightmare to plan shifts.
While generators required for rearing chickens were relatively inexpensive, the electricity-hungry abattoirs and accompanying cold storage caused a severe problem, he said.
Rainbow had three such plants. The generators for each plant cost between R25 million and R30 million. On top of that, the generators had expensive fuel running costs.
He said it was simply "too expensive" for the company to make this outlay.
Rainbow was making up lost time on processing birds for the market through weekend overtime work, but the damage to profits, which was yet to be calculated, would be "significant", Field said.
The Milk Producers' Organisation (MPO), which represents the country's 3 600 dairy farmers, added its voice to Rainbow Chicken's call for more predictability in the cutting of power.
"We are frustrated as there is just no plan on the table from government and Eskom's side. We just don't know what is going to happen," said MPO managing director Etienne Terreblanche.
If production continued to be lost, the milk shortages of early last year would return.
The higher cost of production under these trying circumstances would see the consumer paying more.
He stressed that apart from the revenue lost due to milking not taking place and stock being lost because it had not been cooled, there were numerous additional costs that were being calculated.
These included purchasing generators at a cost of about R80 000 each, along with new dairy cows. Dairy cows were creatures of habit, developing mastitis (inflammation of the udder) when they were not regularly milked, which caused affected cows to become less productive.
Unproductive cows would have to be replaced, sending up the prices of healthy replacement cows.
Low milk prices paid to farmers in 2006 and early last year by milk processors led to a cut in production as farmers converted to other types of agriculture, leading to a milk shortage at the time.
The MPO was assessing the economic cost to farmers, Terreblanche said.
Along with farmer organisation Agri SA and the National African Farmers' Union, it would meet Eskom and the government this week.
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