Tips on How to Reduce and Stop Stealing In Your Farm
Regardless of who manages your, how to reduce and stop stealing in your farm is a serious issue that requires serious measure.
Farm theft or stealing from the farm is a common problem affecting many farmers today. It has course serious economic loss and has to reduce considerably the profit margin of many farmers.
Profits that would have been used in expanding or improving many farms around the world today.
In most cases stealing on the farm has led to many farms filing for bankruptcy. and has led to the extinction or end of such farms.
As a result of massive looting or stealing by some unscrupulous or greedy farmworkers, that are meant to protect, care, work, or feed your animals.
The following important tips will help considerably in checking the activities of farm thieves or dishonest farmworkers that are bent on stealing from your farm always:
A lamp on a fence farm
READ: Proven Ways to Keep Farm Thieves Away From Your Farm and Property
Hiring an honest farm worker will reduce or Stop Stealing In Your Farm
Finding and hiring an honest person is hard to come by these days. Hiring an honest person to manage your property should be your primary focus.
I believe there are still some honest people around these days in spite of all the chaos in the world today. Once you find them stick to them and also in turn help them to succeed.
You may have to fire and keep firing dishonest farm workers until you get the right ones.
Most times it is not just okay you leave the entire management of your business in the hands of your farm worker. Participate actively in the day to day running of your farm.
Know the quantity of harvest you can get at the end of the day or the number of eggs or crates of eggs you can get each day from your farm. The quantity of feed your birds or livestock will consume each day so that you can easily detect any foul play by your farmworkers.
providing a secured environment will reduce or stop stealing on your farm
Provides padlocked on your facility to reduce and Stop Stealing In Your Farm
The acts of taking proper stock of your properties. And putting them under padlocked can never be overemphasized at least to some extent it will reduce theft or stealing from your farm.
Only you and some trusted farm workers should have access to your farm. Where you keep your farm produce or harvest should be properly secured and under padlocked places like the storehouse, room, or the entire farm especially poultry or livestock farm.
With padlocked on your facilities you will be able to tell if someone has broken into your farm or not and it will a large extent reduce theft.
Consistently taking stock will help in reducing stealing on your farm
Taking stock at the initial stage of starting your farm is not just enough due to the fact that those animals are always giving birth.
And are multiplying, visiting your farm from time to time will save you a lot of money and properties that would have been stolen ordinarily.
Sometimes ago a very good friend of mine once told me how his farmworkers will always tell him that his chicken is death or his goat is death because they know he is always not at the farm.
He doesn’t visit frequently, one day he told them that every bird or livestock that is death should not be hurriedly disposed of but the dead body, be kept so he can see them. These mark the end of the frequent death that normally occurs on his farm.
The implication of what he is saying is that there has been no death of birds or livestock in the past. What his farmworkers do is that they steal and sell his birds or livestock and at the end of the day they simply tell him they are dead or dying. This is the more reason why it is very important to take stock and put an eagle eye on your farm.
Poultry birds on a farm
Always Provides security coverage at your farm
The importance of providing security at your farm cannot be overemphasized.
The provision of a security guard at your farm will reduce to a large extent the incidence of theft especially petty thieves or organize criminals.
If you want to hire the services of a security man, inquire about his history and character from other people that know him very well to be sure he doesn’t have any criminal record or history.
It is advisable to build a small safe contain house for him and his family on the farm so he can leave on the farm and take care of your property very well.
Though some of them can still steal even when living with their family on your property especially cattle. That is why it is very important you keep an eye on the guard man always.
Especially whenever you notice he has moved his family away from the farm. You have to be extra careful because the next thing he might do is to move or steal your cattle.
disappearing with them into the bush, a number of cases like that have occurred. Always put an eye on them particularly if they are safeguarding cows on your farm.
Fenced mango orchard
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Showing kindness and generosity to your farm workers will help considerably in reducing the tendency to steal from your farm
There is nothing as good and important as treating your farm workers especially security men with worth and value.
Make them understand that your business is their business, and if you succeed they will also succeed. You are all in this together never treat them like aliens let them have a stake in the farm business.
Let them be aware that their source of livelihood depends on the success of the farm. They will do everything possible to make sure you succeed.
But if you maltreat or deny them anything that truly belongs to them. If you are in the habit of delaying their salary without any genuine reason or underpaying your staff.
Then you are inviting hatred or discord, and fuelling an avenue to loot and steal from your farm. Though it is not a yardstick, you can be kind to some people.
Yet they may still steal from your farm or decide to pay you back with evil. But that shouldn’t stop you from showing kindness to those that are less privileged than you are or those working under you.
It is better to show kindness and do good than to show wickedness.
Look for a good location
In these days of cattle rustling and stealing it is never a good idea to locate your farm in the middle of the forest.
Though it is a good idea to locate your farm away from the city life or the city center. Especially poultry farms as a result of the offensive smell it might pose to neighbors and also for health concerns. Depending on the laws governing your land or community.
But at the same time, it is not a good idea to go and situate them in the middle of the forest especially in these days of cattle rustling and stealing as earlier stated.
A story has been told of a Retired Army Generals in Kaduna a state in the Northern part of Nigeria. Who locates his farm in the middle of the forest far away from human habitation. Almost completely cut out from the mainland far away from any police outpost.
He was one day attacked by armed bandits or cattle rustlers, they killed his security men instantly. And carted away with his cows worth millions of naira numbering over 400 in number.
That is why it is highly advisable to always locate your farm where there is a good access road. Not too far from a major town, so that low enforcement agents can easily have access in case of crises situation such as banditry attacked or cattle rustlers attempting to steal cows. You can easily call and they in turn can easily respond immediately.
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Having a dog on your farm is one of the wisest decisions to make
At least in your farm in terms of the provision of security. Dog sense of hearing is four times stronger than humans which makes them very alert at all times.
So as to inform the security guard or farm owner of any impending danger. Apart from their sense of hearing, they have a wonderful sense of smell that is almost 10,000 times stronger than that of humans.
Which also makes them capable of smelling danger. And also capable of distinguishing between foes and friends. So it is very important you keep dogs in your farm as part of your security architecture, they will save you a lot of trouble.
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To stop stealing on your farm provide adequate security by fencing your property
Providing perimeter fencing and very bright security lights will help in reducing farm theft
The provision of perimeter fencing on your property or farm will save you a lot of trouble in the end, for instance, the following reasons are why you should have a perimeter fence around your farm:
- It will prevent strangers from easily gaining access to your farm especially strangers that are not welcome.
- It will deter trespassers and eventually stop stealing on your farm.
- A thief is less likely to enter an area that is properly fenced to steal your livestock or other farm produce.
- It will help in establishing boundaries between your farm and the next farm.
- Fencing will also prevent some predators from feasting on your livestock.
- To protect and prevent your animals from wandering into the wild or wandering aimlessly around the environment.
- By affording you the opportunity to place CCTV cameras round your farm particularly in strategic positions around the farms on the fence for the sole purpose of close monitoring and knowing what is happening on your farm.
You can also place bright security light at strategic positions on your farm or at the four corners of the farm to deter intruders of thieves from entering.
The presence of security light will always expose what is happening. And allow security men to see and understand what is going on within the farm area especially at night.
Summarily
If you really want to stop stealing on your farm either by your farm worker (dishonest ones amongst them) or from intruders that may gain access into your farm without your consent.
Be actively involved in the day to day running’s of your farm just don’t leave it in the hands of the farm manager get involve know what is happening. Employ the services of experts to help you with the aspects of security or consult with people that will help you in the management of your farm.
Know about the laws of the land, the pros, and cons of the area you are about to locate your farm. Different places have different laws governing how things are done in their area.
So that you don’t fall into any unnecessary problem. I believe if you do the right thing and follow all necessary precautions you should be able to reduce stealing on your farm to the barest minimum Gods willing.
