Extreme heat burning through farmers’ finances

The blistering heat has been severely impacting the livelihood of many farmers across the island, leaving them in a financial bind.

Farmers in the poultry industry and dairy sector are reporting significant losses and operational challenges induced by the warm climatic conditions affecting Barbados, and consumers are being put on notice that there could be shortages as a result.

President of the Barbados Egg and Poultry Producers Association (BEPPA) Stephen Layne told Barbados TODAY that the heat was putting layers and broilers under stress and they were not performing at optimum levels. He said that for the next six weeks, there will be supply challenges.

“A number of small farmers and the bigger boys are having challenges. We know the bigger players are having difficulties but they are totally not related to the heat. The other farmers are reporting that they have been having growth problems with the birds and while farmers may point fingers at the feed company, we cannot rule out that the heat definitely has a part to play,” he said.

“The same thing applies to the egg industry. The heat is putting the animals under stress, especially because we bring in high-performance embryos that are genetically conditioned for a much cooler climate. So if we don’t have them under perfect conditions they don’t perform so well.

“But some farmers are doing well and I suspect that they will see bigger profits than those who are not up to scale because they will have a larger part of the market share. However, I can’t guarantee that there won’t be any shortages in the short term.”

Veteran milk producer McDonald Stevenson said these have been the most intense warm conditions he has ever experienced in his nearly 30 years of farming.

He said heifers were producing less milk because they were under stress, causing his profits to dip.

“Cows can feel the heat long before us and if we are feeling it to this level, obviously it would be more pressure on the cows. Cows cannot cool themselves like us, they don’t sweat, so they use the energy they should be using to produce milk to keep their body temperature down. It has had a tremendous impact on production,” Stevenson said.

“Even though you may use sprinklers and fans to cool them, the humidity is so heavy you are unable to get them to a level where they would perform the way you want. I am lucky to have a shaded area where the cows can lie. Also, the heat is continuous – from morning to night – so if your earnings are milk and the cows are not producing, you will not be earning as you should.”

He explained that some heifers produced 15 kilogrammes or more of milk daily and were down to 12 kilogrammes or less.

Overall, however, his production is down by 15 to 20 per cent.

Stevenson said that dairy farmers were already under tremendous pressure and the climate was making the situation worse.

“We have all these increases in the price of feed and so on. Even though the cows are producing less. The cost of the feed remains the same so you are losing volume but the expenses are all the same.

“Apart from milk production, the hot temperature also affects breeding. With these temperatures, it is even more difficult to get heifers to conceive. You need to have heifers in calf all the time to maintain production levels. The days that you don’t have pregnant heifers, you will not get production,” the veteran farmer said.

During a tour of his St Lucy farm, Stevenson showed the Barbados TODAY team that some of his herd of 100 animals were salivating.

Under normal conditions, he said, cows would have what is referred to as “wet mouth” but under the current conditions they were panting heavily and drooling.

He added that they were not as responsive as they usually would be, noting that the cows would often walk to the watering trough and splash water on themselves.

According to the latest monthly climate outlook newsletter of the Barbados Meteorological Service, the “heat season” is expected to end around November and above normal temperatures are projected until the end of the forecast period.

In a recent statement, the World Meteorological Organisation said last month was the hottest August recorded using modern equipment and it surpassed pre-industrial averages. This August was also the second hottest month measured behind July 2023.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb