September 18, 2018

Massive losses at US North Carolina's poultry, swine sectors following hurricane
 

Hurricane Florence, which decimated areas in the American Southeast last week, has severely damaged the poultry sector of US state North Carolina, CNBC reported.
 

Currently breaking up, the storm left more than 30 people dead. In addition, at least 3.4 million birds in North Carolina, including chickens and turkeys, were lost, according to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The US state's swine sector is also impacted as well, with an estimated loss of about 5,500 hogs.
 

One of North Carolina's key poultry producers previously estimated the death of chickens due to the storm to be around 1.7 million chickens.
 

Destructions caused by Florence have led to widespread power failures and flooded roads, hindering the transport of feed to livestock and the delivery of fuel to operate backup generators at poultry houses.
 

"The biggest crisis we have got is certainly flooding and water down east," said Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau. "Many of the creeks and rivers have not crested yet."
 

Based on estimates by the National Weather Service in Raleigh, about 8.04 trillion gallons of rain fell in North Carolina as Florence hit the state. At least one pig-manure lagoon at a swine farm in Duplin County was known to be breached, the North Carolina Pork Council said, adding that four lagoons "have been inundated by flood waters" and another seven lagoons at capacity after the storm and appearing to have overtopped.
 

About 9 million hogs are raised in North Carolina. The state ranks second in production, and the industry contributes approximately US$2.9 billion annually to the local economy.
 

Since Florence struck, there were concerns that heavy rain could cause pig-manure lagoons and coal-ash ponds at power facilities to overflow and spill hazardous waste across nearby lands and into waterways.
 

Even then, the state's pork group claimed that there are no "widespread impacts to the more than 2,100 farms with more than 3,000 anaerobic treatment lagoons" in North Carolina, "based on on-farm assessment to date and industry-wide surveying."
 

In addition, the US Environmental Protection Agency said that its staff are "monitoring hog lagoons in storm-impacted areas and is coordinating with North Carolina, as needed, to assess impacts to downstream drinking water intakes due to possible releases."

 
Flooding also affected poultry operations in North Carolina. The state is a major poultry producer and ranks second in total turkey production.

North Carolina's ag agency said poultry losses, as of September 18, were estimated at 3.4 million birds. "This does exceed poultry losses in [2016's] Hurricane Matthew," it added.

Sanderson Farms, the US' third-largest poultry producer, had estimated about 1.7 million broiler chickens at independent farms were destroyed as a result of flooding and indicated there were areas still isolated by flood waters where there could be additional losses of live inventory.

"Out of 880 broiler houses in North Carolina, 60 have flooded," the company said. "Another six houses experienced damage and will be unable to house broilers until repairs are made."

Sanderson also said there were four chicken breeder houses affected in North Carolina by the flooding, and 33 pullet houses with young hens were found to have "serious damage."

Still, Sanderson said it "does not believe the loss of housing capacity will affect its ongoing operations, as it can shorten layouts and take other temporary measures to compensate for these losses.

Elsewhere, Tyson Foods said it had only "minimal impact" to its live poultry operations in North Carolina and Virginia from Florence.

"Two farms in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area were affected and we're leveraging our regional supply chain to ensure there is no disruption to business," said the company's spokesman, Worth Sparkman. "We're helping the affected farmers."

- CNBC