If you are unfortunate enough to have thieves on your farm, the loss of livestock could cost you more than the birds that are stolen. Will White of Crediton Milling explains a recent case he came across.
Somerset farmer Ian Jones runs a multi-enterprise farm including a 120,000 pig nursery unit, dairy heifers and a 70 head pony stud. Last December he moved into free range production and installed a 7,500 Columbian Blacktail unit of Burford Browns and Cotswold Legbars supplying Stonegate.
During a recent visit he told me about a problem he had just solved that I thought I would bring to the attention of Ranger readers. He was losing a lot of birds at night due to smothering and seeing a big loss in production. These birds weren’t exactly young; they were around 40 weeks of age and looked fantastic. When I started to ask questions to get to the bottom of the problem I was shocked by what he had to tell me.
One morning he found around 250 chickens smothered up in one corner of the shed. On walking around he could only put it down to either a fox getting in or some kind of disturbance during the night. When it happened again he stared to look more closely. On inspecting the pop holes he found a crow bar mark. The boundary fence of the range was then examined to find the top strand of electric fence had been broken. With that there was also footprints coming from where the fence had been damaged. The Police where then called and it was agreed to put cameras up around his sheds near the pop holes.
It seems he had been the victim of a growing crime – someone had been in stealing the livestock! What became apparent was these chickens were stolen the night before a big poultry sale nearby on both occasions.
Ian has now installed infrared security cameras, which warn him should intruders come near the sheds. An arrest has now been made in this case and hopefully the publicity and the security measures taken should ensure that this does not happen again. However, even though an arrest has been made, it does not compensate for the loss of production. In some instances upset to the shed in such a dramatic way may mean the flock never get back to full production.
I have since been asking people if they have been a victim of poultry theft. It’s very surprising the amount of producers who have been targeted.
I found that;
• 74% of rural crime is believed to occur during hours of darkness
• 71% of thefts are planned
So why are egg producers more at risk?
• In recent years it has been very }} fashionable to keep a few chickens in the back garden which in turn has pushed up the prices at the regular poultry sales. On the back of this chickens are being stolen to order and entered into these sales.
• During the recent slump in egg prices, producers have been forced to generate extra income by selling eggs at the end of their drives. In turn this has been an ideal opportunity for people to take eggs without paying for them. As most honesty boxes are unmanned thieves see this as an ideal opportunity to not only steal the eggs, but the money as well.
Below are a few tips to help you safe guard your property and your livestock.
• Look closely at the perimeter of your property, remove all gates and entrances that you no longer use.
• Move your egg sales boxes closer to buildings where there are plenty of people about.
• Plant thorn hedges with deep ditches and bunds.
• Change the layout of your business to establish a single entrance and exit.
• Place a gate at the public end of your entrance to make it less inviting.
• Place a second inner gate at the private end of the entrance to your property.
• Invert and cap gate hinges so that gates cannot be lifted off, or use good padlocks with covers so they cannot be cut off. Also, ensure all fixing bolts cannot be removed.
• If a gate is not being used for a lengthy period, place a temporary obstruction in front of it so it cannot be opened or used for parking.
• Use locking posts or temporary obstructions to control large openings to yards.
• Cattle grids should be removable and locked out of position when not in use.
• Place CCTV at the inner gate to record registered numbers of vehicles and the faces of drivers. Place CCTV signs.
• Install sensor controlled ‘dusk to dawn’ security lights to alert you to visitors.
• Install an infra red device at the inner gate which will sound an alarm to alert you to visitors.
• Join a ‘Watch’ scheme, obtain signs from the Police and place them on gates.
• Place signs saying “We do not buy from calling sales persons”. (Unless they are from Crediton Milling!!!)
Historically, many farm buildings were built for storage, not for security. Now they need to be secure as well as to provide cover.
• Put yourself in the place of a thief; inspect your buildings and upgrade your storage to reflect the value of the property stored in it. Fit high quality locks.
• Ensure the fabric of the building is secure. Seek advice from a Police Crime Prevention Officer.
• Add to indoor security by installing sensors with audible alarms. Display signs to show you have alarms installed.
• Store all your property indoors when not in use.
• Keep all doors locked, except when the building or office is in use and there is someone present.
• If your building shell is poor, use secondary secure storage such as a container.
