By Sheria Brathwaite
Small farmer Tamikia Skeete is desperately crying out for help after an investment of about $22 000 went south very quickly.
She had an extremely high mortality rate on a farm in Christ Church she was leasing, with the death of 1 200 of the 1 900 broilers she was raising at the time.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY on Sunday at her Marley Vale, St Philip home, she explained that the situation which occurred in late October and early November last year was taking a toll on her and her husband’s ability to maintain the needs of their household.
“I don’t want to speak too much about it to bring [shame] to my children but things are really hard . . . . Imagine losing all of that money and still have children to feed [and] have bills to pay,” she lamented.
Skeete added that, among other things, it was becoming difficult to send her five children to school.
What has made matters worse is that she did not have sufficient funds to bring her other business – J&T’s Health Foods, which offers seasonings and vanilla bean food products – up to scale so she could rally out on the earnings from that venture.
Last Friday night, she posted a video that made the rounds on social media in which she indicated how hard life had been since the losses and pleaded for help, saying she had nowhere to turn.
Skeete said she had bought the birds in batches – two batches of 500 and three of 300.
Small farmer Tamikia Skeete has been trying to get back on her feet since incurring the losses.
“I lost all from the two sets of 500 and I lost some from the last batch of 300; so, 1 200 in total we lost. Every day we were going in [the pens we saw dead birds]. The first time we found about 56, the next day it was about 68, then it dropped to about 36, then from there it was climbing. They were rotting from the inside out. We would see some birds with a purplish, blue stomach and then by the next morning they were dead and had started to decay,” she said.
Skeete said she then went through a process of elimination to see what the problem could be.
“I had to rule out things. We checked the [bedding]. We checked in other pens and the mortality rate was [okay]. We then took five of the dead birds to the vet and he told me it [could be] the toxins in the feed,” the farmer said,
In his report on December 6, 2022, veterinarian Derek Griffith said “the post-mortem examination revealed thickened and/or eroded gizzard lining in all birds” which “may be associated with the intake of irritant substances like mould toxins”.
The document continued: “In my opinion, the high mortality in this flock is likely due to mould toxins in the feed. This is often accompanied by poor absorption of nutrients from the feed, poor growth, increased mortality, nervous signs and immunosuppression.”
The mother of five said she subsequently reached out to Pinnacle Feeds about the situation and an employee inspected the pens. However, she said she was still waiting to hear from management.
Management of the feed company told Barbados TODAY on Monday that they could not disclose any information on the matter and investigations were still ongoing.
“It made me feel depressed. The upfront cost was about $22 000 but we did make money off of the ones that lived. We reinvested the money . . . so in total, we spent between $32 000 to 35 000. So I would like some form of compensation,” said Skeete who has been farming for eight years.
She said she was at her wit’s end trying to cope with the losses.When contacted, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said he was in touch with the farmer.
President of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers’ Association (BEPPA) Stephen Layne said he had also reached out to her and he was to meet with other BEPPA members to see how they could assist.
He also took the opportunity to appeal to the farming community to contact the various associations under the Barbados Agricultural Society as soon as possible if they were experiencing any difficulties.
Layne added that BEPPA was soon going to launch a best practices training programme farmers could benefit from.
Skeete and her husband have been trying to get back on their feet since. They have invested $4 000 in a pen at the back of their home with 100 birds. That pen has the capacity for 250 birds.
She added that they were planning to expand that pen to hold 1 200 broilers but it would take an additional $15 000 to do so.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
