Happy Chinese New Year to all! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
I guess most have started work. During the long festive Holiday I went back to my home town in the North.
The weather is bad real bad. Information from the metrological department, some areas reach 36C. Ponds and lakes are fast drying up this is bad news for those who are in swiftlet farming.
It was hot and dry and I could felt the hot and dry air pinching my skin. I couldn’t image if this hot air filled the whole internal of a farm.
Swiftlets love water that is why when it rains you would see many of them flying and playing while other birds would avoid it or find shelters when rain. Birds could catch flu easily and I guess that is why they call it bird flu but Swiflets are immune to this the more it rains the better.
With rising temperature farms that have no insulation on their walls and ceilings will be the first to be affected. Having many exhaust fans making it worse.
In such situation if farms that already have nests the number will reduce, if it is a new farm birds that have stayed would leave too. In fact I have visited farms that have an internal temperature of more than 36C. With such high temperature I wonder how swiftlets are going to make nest.
Of course some may argue that they have seen or heard of farm that has a temp of 36c or more still managed to have nests. I do agree, but how many nests would there be perhaps less than few nests.
I always believe in prevention, even in places like the Northern Perak which has the highest rain fall in the whole of Malaysia I still make wall insulation. Never know, perhaps one day there might be drought too. It is hard to predict the weather It is too risky.
Last year was good. The whole year has plenty of rain evens those simply made farms that have no heat insulation still managed to have nests. The average temp throughout the year was about 28C. But this year it will be different. I anticipated there will be many failed farms because all birds would leave farms that have poor micro and fly to farm that have good micro.
Winner takes it all scenario will prevail. Those successful farms that have good micro would continue to have more nests and birds and the poorly done ones would have less. We certainly can’t change this, 10% of the people holds 90% of the world’s wealth and 90% shares the 10% wealth. Welcome to the real world and the World of Swiftlet Farming.
Good Farming All.
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