Experimental Study of the Effects of Ergonomics on the Economics of Poultry Farming

Abstract

The profitability index of any productive venture depends partly on the nature of the work study adopted by the organisation. To this end, this work is aimed at investigating the effects of using standard ergonomic principles for egg productions in our farms as against the traditional methods of egg production. Also, the work will compare and evaluate the economics in the ergonomics of egg production, food consumption and sales of old stock after productive year as against the normal conventional crude way of poultry farming in most farms in southern Nigeria using available records.A ten-year data of egg collections, feed intake, average monthly cost of labour, cost of medications and monthly mortality rates in Marfes farms involving one thousand(1000) birds raised in a deep litter system was examined with respect to the cost of production and other variablesand compared with data collected from well organised ergonomic friendly arrangement of one thousand (1000) birds for egg production.The data obtained was analysed and subjected to statistical analysis (ANOVA) to determine the degree of variance from standard at 95 percent confidence interval.The result of our findings showed that there exists a significant difference between birds raised in a deep litter system and those in an ergonomically friendly environment, in terms of mortality rate, egg production, feed consumption, average cost of feeding and feed conversion rate. The result of the study again, revealed that Marfes farms loses about N3,035.46 daily as result of not using best agricultural practices. Irrespective of the initial high cost of establishing the standard pen, over time, it is cost effective, and yields a super return on investment.