Having to euthanize and correctly eliminate a poultry flock on account of a illness like HPAI may be devastating emotionally for poultry farmers. Even with indemnification funds, an HPAI outbreak on a grower’s farm can have long-lasting damaging influence on the farm’s funds, based on Jordan Shockley, Ph.D., Affiliate Extension Professor, Division of Agricultural Economics, College of Kentucky.
Shockley reported on monetary influence of prolonged downtime on the funds of broiler growers at PEAK 2024 in Minneapolis, MN, on April 17, 2024. He carried out analyses on trying on the influence of dropping one, two or three broiler flocks on a growers’ funds beneath two situations. One situation was known as the start farmer, the place the HPAI outbreak happens throughout yr two of manufacturing. The start farmer has little or no fairness and excessive debt. The skilled farmer has way more fairness and fewer debt.
Starting broiler growers are likely to have very excessive debt masses as a result of lending establishments are keen to fund such extremely leveraged investments as a result of the integrator assumes the market danger and the growers’ funds from the integrator are regular and considerably assured. However there aren’t funds if there aren’t any flocks. So prolonged downtime hurts all growers considerably however is especially dangerous to starting growers as a result of they’re so extremely leveraged.
Downtime which prevents three flocks from being positioned and marketed can put the farms funds in a gap which might take a number of years or even a decade to get out of, and there’s no method to ever recoup the misplaced income. Mortgage funds should be made even when there aren’t birds on the farm. If the funds are deferred, the quantity owed will improve as curiosity is accrued.
Shockley mentioned that his evaluation ought to reinforce the significance of diligently following your biosecurity plan on a poultry grower’s farm. The danger of HPAI an infection continues to be excessive and the influence on a farm’s funds may be devastating.
To study extra about HPAI circumstances in industrial poultry flocks in the USA, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
View our persevering with protection of the international avian influenza state of affairs.
