Savings owing to efficient energy usage make farmers much more competitive when prices are under pressure in these tough economic times.
The rising costs of doing business, including higher electricity bills, has made profit margins in the farming sector increasingly slim. According to Eskom, farmers can play a significant role in reducing the overall demand for energy in SA and, apart from contributing towards a reliable supply of energy in the country, farmers can also reap big rewards when it comes to cost savings.
In the chicken farming sector, broiler chicks are reared in an environmentally controlled location where Lux (amount of light or illumination is measured in Lux) and heating determine how efficiently the chicks grow to optimal size. The ideal light intensity is between five Lux and 15 Lux (measured in lumens / m2 ), and the ideal heat varies between 38° Celsius (when brooding) and 22° Celsius. Too little or too much of either of these has a profound impact on chick mortality and growth rates.
For former Springbok prop Andre-henri (Ollie) Le Roux, the broiler farming business has provided a successful post-rugby career in his native Free State. Le Roux rears broilers just outside Bloemfontein, and has done so since 2000 – two years before his last test as a ‘Bok’.
The broiler market is extremely cut-throat, says Le Roux, and every last drop of productivity has to be wrung out of the resources at his disposal in order to remain competitive as well as minimise his rearing costs. Electricity is a major contributor to productivity, since lighting and heating play a dominant role in rearing broilers. Some 8.5 per cent of Le Roux’s overall costs, and 74 per cent of his farm’s operations costs, are energy-related.
Le Roux says he has taken steps to reduce electricity consumption and to reduce the demand his chicken farm places on the national grid. These measures include replacing traditional 1000W halogen and 400HPS security lights with 140W compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). In addition, some 960, 60 watt, incandescent lights were replaced by 13 watt CFLs at a cost of R230 000. Le Roux recouped this spend within 30 months as energy-hungry incandescent light bulbs consume up to 80 per cent more electricity than CFLs.
CFLs also last six times longer than incandescent, so where Le Roux used to have to change 10 to 15 normal bulbs per house every brooding cycle, this has dropped to approximately two CFLs for all the coops per cycle. Plus, there has been no difference in Lux or ambient heat because he uses open-sided houses.
Le Roux has also installed smart technologies such as day/night switches, lighting timers and central control points, having had an immediate impact on electricity costs and a long-term impact on maintenance and replacement costs.
Cash flow and employee productivity are greatly enhanced with less need to fix or replace broken fittings, replace spent incandescent bulbs, or deal with short circuits that trip the fail safes and stop the whole system, says Le Roux. Variable daylight hours also mean that Le Roux saves different amounts of power according to the season.
On average, the measures he has put in place save him between 20 to 50 per cent on his electricity bill. When the farm is not operational, Le Roux can also reduce his expenditure by ensuring all unnecessary lights and motors are turned off.
Just recently, Le Roux was able to expand his business considerably because of all the savings his made. Understanding his farm’s electricity consumption in more detail enabled him to plan more accurately.
