Assistant Farmer X 2 - Rainbow Chicken

Role Purpose:
To assist in the monitoring of the day-to-day activities at the farm to act as Farm Manager in the absence of the Farm Manager.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum Grade 12; Tertiary qualification will be an advantage
• Relevant Tertiary Qualification advantageous

Required Experience:

• 2 Years experience in the Poultry environment with 1 year experience/exposure in supervisory capacity
• Physically fit with no allergies to bird feathers and dust

Required Knowledge and Skills:

• Knowledge:
• Understand basic poultry nutrition, growth, anatomy and reproduction
• Farm operations and processes
• Ability to recognize ventilation, brooding, feeding and water requirements of the birds and make the correct adjustments
• Operation of farm equipment

• Skills:
• Verbal and written communication
• Interpersonal
• Numeracy
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Stockmanship

Key Responsibilities:

• House Preparation prior to placement in order to create ideal conditions for bird production.
• Chick Placement co ordinate and monitor staff, liaise with the hatchery, chick placing foremen.
• Post placement of chicks (Brooding conditions) Evaluation of chick quality, recording of vent temperatures, temperature setting.
• Growing conditions Daily monitoring of the bird performance which entails feed intake, water recordings, temp and humidity recordings, mortality recordings.
• Ventilation management Adjust ventilation static pressure to achieve minimum and maximum bird requirement.
• Water Management - Water sampling prior to placement, flushing of the water lines three times in a week, sanitation of house water reticulation, daily water pressure setting and nipple heights.
• Feed management Receiving and Recording of feed deliveries relative to feed programme; daily bin stock counts; management of feed heights; adjustment of feeder levels according to birds size; monitoring of feed quality (% of fine feed); sampling of feed when the truck arrives.
• Outsource activities Preparation of the house environment prior to catching commencing; all documentation relative to catching need to check accuracy with the broiler planner; good communication and planning with the catching team and logistics to minimize any holding time.
• Biosecurity and Farm sanitation Maintaining an effective biosecurity programme by practicing good hygiene, vaccination and disease prevention.
• Bird Health Daily monitoring and activity of birds, and sending of postmortems to the laboratory as per VCD.
• Record Keeping Keep the documentation files updated that is KFC, health and safety files; feed recording; house chart records; rodent control, mortality records.
• Staff management Keep and update daily registers, mdwts, disciplinary records, training records, review meetings.