‘We will come up short’
St Catherine poultry farmer warns of holiday shortages as Melissa wipes out livestock
Published:Monday | November 24, 2025 | 1:34 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Hurricane Melissa has left widespread destruction across St Catherine North Eastern, with farmers reporting millions of dollars in losses, particularly within the small-scale livestock and poultry sector.
The hardest hit are broiler and layer farmers, many of whom now believe the devastation will result in a shortage of chicken meat and eggs for the Christmas season. Despite the promise of baby chicks from Agriculture Minister Floyd Green, who toured affected farms last Thursday, producers insist that the timelines required for poultry development mean Christmas supplies cannot be met.
“Broilers take six weeks before they can be slaughtered for the market, and layers take 18 to 22 weeks before they start laying eggs, you see. We will come up short for the holidays,” said Nadesha Simmonds Small, who, along with her husband, depends on poultry farming to support their family of five, including two children attending the University of Technology, Jamaica and one at Guys Hill High School.
Simmonds Small shared that she had initially planned to slaughter 500 broiler chickens – expected to earn more than $700,000 – just two days before the hurricane struck. Those birds, however, never made it to market.
“A tree fell on the coop, and they piled on each other and compressed the ones at the bottom, while others got wet and couldn’t survive the rain and wind,” she explained.
Her challenges worsened after the hurricane knocked out electricity in the community, leaving her unable to slaughter the few surviving birds.
“I have some chicken that survived and are ready, but because of not having electricity to run the freezer, I cannot slaughter them, so I have to keep on feeding them, and this has caused my cost to go up,” she told The Gleaner.
Still, she welcomed the minister’s commitment to help her rebuild. She said the gesture to provide resources to rebuild the coop and supply baby chicks to restart production is a blessing.
Other farmers have similar stories.
Solomon Crossman, a livestock and vegetable farmer from Guys Hill, said he lost pigs and crops valued at approximately $800,000.
Crossman, who had recently harvested several pounds of ginger, described the impact simply: “The hurricane treat me rough. A whole heap a losses. It will take time for me to recover,” he said.
He appealed for immediate inputs to restart operations.
“I will take any assistance, but right now, I need fertiliser and vegetable seeds,” he disclosed.
Veteran farmer Alrick Gordon expressed gratitude after receiving a bag of Irish potato seeds and fertiliser from Member of Parliament Kerensia Morrison.
Gordon’s vegetable plot – consisting of sweet corn, Scotch bonnet pepper, sweet pepper, and other crops – was completely destroyed.
“It hit me bad. I loss just about $1.4 million in net earnings. I am prepared to restart production right away,” he said, praising Morrison for her assistance.
Morrison, for her part, remains confident in the constituency’s agricultural resilience.
“These farmers are resilient and I am sure they are equal to the task. This is a very dedicated set of farmers; they are good farmers, hard-working farmers and they will bounce back strong,” she said.