PHOTO: YULIIA NIKOLAIEVA
PHOTO: PTAHOPRODUCT
PHOTO: PTAHOPRODUCT
SPECIAL REPOR ▶▶▶T
And on top of that, they left behind tripwires all over the ter- rain,” the owner of Ptahoprodukt lists the losses. Fortunately, the occupiers continued on their way soon. Oleksandr Strilets notes that had the occupation lasted longer, the destruction would have been more significant, and the situation could have been like the poultry farm in Chornobayivka. Where a real tragedy occurred: four million adult chickens and 700,000 young chicks were starved to death by the Russian occupiers. They turned off the electricity, prohibiting em- ployees from working and wouldn’t even let them dispose of dead birds.
Immediately after the Russian invasion, feed supply became a major issue.
Egg production at Ptahoproduct recovered quickly after the liberation of the Sumy region.
The layer house in better days. 8 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 7, 2022
Reflection The owner of Ptakhoprodukt says that working under the occupation is about often having to make hard decisions within limited time frames. Under such conditions, the most important thing is when the company’s top management is highly motivated and determined to work. Then the staff do not give up, and practical solutions are found to situations that nobody could have predicted. On 5 March, in the middle of the occupation, 50,000 new chicks should have been deliv- ered. “Since the amount of feed was limited, before accepting 50,000 new chicks, we decided to change the diet of the adult livestock, limiting both volumes and nutrition level. Any change, however, sets a chain reaction in motion – modifica- tions to the feed composition, adjustments in logistics, redis- tribution of resources, and more. When we realized that the issue with feed on the farm was critical, we accepted that the most tactical decision at the time was to let the existing flock ‘moult’. They had eaten poorly for a few days anyway and then as soon as we got the feed, we started having to deal with moulting. The farm workers considered this is a violation of proper animal husbandry. But, owing to that, we managed to save the flock.” After six weeks of occupation the Russians were driven out of the Sumy area by Ukrainian forces but that didn’t mean an end to the struggles. One of the most immediate issues was the tripwires left behind by the Russian troops which meant that none of the employees could enter the grounds. Every- one was afraid of possibly detonating them. It was the direc- tor of the poultry farm, Mykhailo Bespalyi, who took control of the situation. He surveyed the area covered with tripwires, worked out a safe route and the employees followed him. Strilets: “The first thing they did was catch chickens and put them back in cages. They then defrosted the heaters to warm up the premises and started other production processes. They managed to save quite a lot of chickens and chicks. Although about 10-15% of the 30,000 chickens died.” Despite the production efficiency decreasing somewhat, the feed mill and poultry farms are continuing to function. “We managed to restore sales markets in the Sumy region, Kharkiv and Kyiv. And just the other day, a new batch of 50,000 chickens was delivered, marking a new start”, Strilets concludes.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
