Load shedding and meat supply

Load shedding and meat delays 

As a small farm, we work with other small businesses that are made up of people, not systems. This means there is accountability and relationship, knowing that the animals we raise to the best of our abilities, are processed into meat with the same love, care, transparency and trust. But this also means that the impact of things on people, impacts their work, and ultimately our business. 

Last week our butcher drove all the way out to the farm to explain to us that he could not, in good conscience, harvest any of our animals for the next two to three weeks. This was because of the impact of load shedding on his business. With eleven hours of outages a day, he was not able to keep his cold room cold enough for certain. He was in the process of spending a huge sum of money to put in generators. With a minimum 14 day hanging time, this means we will have a delay of up to 6 weeks on our beef. As our butcher pleaded with us to continue to work with him, we plead with our customers to continue supporting us. 

The impact of load shedding has been huge for our business and the businesses we work with. We have different butchers for chicken, pork and beef but we are aware that often any of them are up at 4am to process as much as possible before load shedding, or working as late as possible at night but without equipment noise disturbing neighbours. The cost of installing backup power is a risk taken by these processors. We have had to install additional solar and back up to keep our freezers running. The break down, slicing, processing, packaging of the products is significantly delayed as machinery cannot run for most of the day.

This goes on in the background as a conversation between us and the various butchers and abattoirs that we work with. On the front end, we have to manage expectations and frustrations because meat is not delivered when it’s promised, while it’s out of our control, knowing that the team are working their butts off. 

You may have read about our broiler struggles whereby we would be up at dawn to load broilers, drive to the abattoir only to meet load shedding and have to wait two hours (if lucky!) until processing can start - if you’re front of the queue. If you’re further in the queue, you have to hope you get in before the next load shedding. Knowing that the team is working as quickly as they can, knowing that the abattoir can only afford to open on certain days because the operating costs are too high. 

The weight of this risk forced us to change abattoirs. This means a smaller abattoir with higher costs, only  able to process fewer birds at a time. This means for us, trying to work around the load shedding schedules to sometimes have birds there by 6am. And having to travel more often against the cost of fuel. We struggle to keep a consistent supply of chicken in this way, and manage expectations, as well as plan production.

Our customers and shops are  buying less and less stock because of the risk of load shedding and outages and their freezers defrosting. So we carry that risk. 

In March, part of our back up System was struck by lightning. We are unable to raise chickens in winter because it’s too cold. Last summer was too wet and we couldn’t risk the unpleasant conditions for our birds. We were waiting for autumn when the weather is stable and just right. Unfortunately the loss of our backup meant we couldn’t risk brooding chicks because if there was a four hour load shedding outage, or another 24 hour plus outage (that has been pretty regular in our area) we had no way to keep the chicks warm. We lost our production window. For. the. year.

We have been fortunate to work with a friend who is producing with us on his farm that has helped keep supply consistent. Again this is more costly, but necessary. 

At the beginning of May we were able to repair and expand our solar system in the hopes of going off grid. We cannot continue replacing freezers from fluctuating voltage and the constant on and off, as well as the risk of trying to keep meat frozen. The cost to us is huge. We are aware of the rising costs for our producers, we are aware of the economic constraints in the market so we can’t really mitigate these increases by increasing our prices. We are squeezed from both sides. 

As a small farm, we work with real people, not systems. People that suffer injury and illness that delay processing, people that have family issues going on. We carry the emotional load of knowing all of these things in our quest to run a business with consistent supply, as well as understanding our customers need to have that supply for their health and the loyalty that they show us. 

The best we can all do is have each other's backs, keep supporting, keep looking after one another. Remembering that every time you support local, a real person does a little happy dance.