11/18/03
By Bud Malone
Extension poultry specialist
University of Delaware
If you have a disability, there is help available to you. The Delaware-Maryland AgrAbility Program is a joint effort of the Universities of Delaware and Maryland, Maryland Center for Independent Living, and Easter Seals. The program serves farmers in Delaware and Maryland.
The goal is to inform, educate and assist farmers with disabilities and their families, so they can continue to lead a successful farming operation (See sidebar on AgrAbility annual conference, Page 6). For poultry growers, examples of some disabilities for which you can get assistance are amputation, arthritis, stroke, respiratory illness, and back or other physical conditions that limit your activity.
Several months ago I was asked to visit four poultry families to assess their operations and provide recommendations on technologies that would help them overcome some of their most difficult husbandry tasks.
These were very proud individuals, and it is often hard for them to ask for outside assistance or help from family members. But the purpose of the program is to help our growers overcome some of the more difficult tasks in order for them to stay competitive and continue to maintain a viable poultry operation.
Of the four families I visited, three family members have rheumatoid arthritis; two had back, neck or knee surgeries; and one had a hand injury. Having arthritis in just one toe and previous back pain myself, I cannot imagine how those growers have managed to perform many daily tasks that we often take for granted.
Following is a list of tasks that posed greatest difficulty for the growers I visited, and my recommendations for strategies to reduce their painful tasks.
Mortality management
Picking up dead chickens, toting to doors, carrying the dead to the composter and composting them are challenges for these growers. It is particularly an issue with large birds. Another major challenge, even for a healthy person, is stepping over nipple-drinker lines while carrying carcasses.
Depending on the grower’s limitation, resources and house layout, my recommendations to assist with those tasks includes one or more of the following: Installing breaks in long sections of the nipple lines at locations that provide an alleyway to doors. One innovative grower had installed in his newest house dead bird doors on the opposite side of the litter doors. Those small, insulated doors allowed him to drop birds outside the house without having to walk across the width of the building. That grower had need for such doors in his other three houses.
One individual with arthritis in his hand needed a better tool to pick up dead birds since squeezing and cranking poses major difficulty for individuals with the disease. Rehab engineers and assistive technologists can design a tool to assist with that task.
Other recommendations include using an electric golf cart with ag tires to carry dead birds to composters, and redesigning composters. Growers can either go to a gate system instead of prying boards from bins or a channel composting system. For some disabled growers, a rotary composter or incinerator might be a consideration.
Chick Feeding
Rolling out feed paper and feeding on paper or box lids was difficult for disabled individuals. Recommendations to ease the burden of those tasks include the use of Chick Mates and/or a pull or rail-type feed cart, and a paper dispenser — either wall, portable or pull-type.
Equipment Adjustments
Routine adjustments of nipple-drinker pressure, raising drinker and feed lines or winching curtains also pose difficulty for growers with joint disabilities. Suggestions to ease these tasks include changing hand winches to ceiling winches, and providing a portable drill or installing an electric plug-in winch system.
Although breaking drinker lines for alleyways eases some mortality-related task, it increases the number of regulators for pressure adjustment. Since bending to adjust regulators is difficult for those with back or knee afflictions, I recommend installing one of the newer central pressure controllers. Those units adjust all regulators from one location in the house and can be preprogrammed to automatically flush drinker lines.
Other Tasks
Spreading litter treatments can be a challenge if you don’t have the proper equipment. It was recommended the program provide one grower with a push spreader with pneumatic tires. For growers with arthritis, the mere act of turning door or fan/thermostat knobs causes great pain. Suggestions to ease this burden include installing or redesigning knobs that have a lever or digital controls. Tractor attachment recommendations include “quick hitch” to avoid getting on/off the tractor to connect to the 3-point hitch, and a pallet fork attachment for the bucket to ease material handling of the litter treatment.
For those growers having conventional ventilation, hanging fans in the center of the house can be a major challenge. The suggestion here was to permanently mount the fans in the center (assuming adequate ceiling height) and to install a winching system that raises and tilts fans.
I am hopeful the AgrAbility program can assist with most, if not all of these recommendations. If you are aware of other labor-saving techniques that can assist our fellow disabled growers, please call me, or if you know of someone that might benefit from this program, call Ron Jester. Our phone number is (302) 856-7303. This is truly a great program and I am pleased to play a minor role in helping some of our physically challenged growers.