I recently heard a story about an emerging poultry farmer who asked a neighbour who has been chicken farming for years to help vaccinate chicken layers. The neighbour had done this for years so there was no reason to doubt his competency. The farmer’s only mistake was to still allow the neighbour access to their coop even after noticing he was a bit intoxicated and guess what happened? The next morning half of their stock was dead because he overdosed the vaccine. What a loss! Imagine if this was a beef/dairy project and half of the herd dies. That’s why it is very important as a farmer to be very knowledgeable about projects you want to venture into before you start. When it comes to treating your livestock, they are few things you need to bear in mind before you administer treatment. Firstly, you need to be on the look out for any sick animal. Check them daily every morning, during the day and after. This is to avoid a situation where it would be too late for the animal. Make sure once you identify a sick animal, you are able to correctly diagnose the disease as well. This helps in correctly treating the animal. Giving the animal wrong treatment will delay the actual treatment thus allowing the real condition to worsen. You might realize on the instructions of the medicine that the doses for a certain treatment differs when it comes to age, weight or sex. Be sure to correctly calculate the right dose and/or frequency to avoid the situation I have mentioned above. Otherwise we @ VaMudhumeni always wish you the best! For more information on better farming practises, visit our blog to learn more.
By Lynette Simango