A PYTHON breeder with a stable population of around 40,000 rodents, Steve Leisk is hoping to grow the team at one of Australia's largest commercial rodent production facilities amidst soaring industry demand for reptile feed; and he wouldn't mind a quail technician thrown in the mix.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"Staff come and go, and while it's like any other year with needing junior yet mature workers, we need staff who actually know what work is," Mr Leisk said.
"If they've got a willingness to learn and a willingness to do the job, I can teach them everything they need to know from there."
The Cabonne-based DoLittle Farm is home to a plethora of snakes, mice, rats, rabbits and game-bird quail; a commercial pet-food-producing workplace that isn't exactly for the faint-hearted.
Though, with the nation-wide acceleration to meet the growing demands for game bird feed via reptile owners, animal rescuers and pet food suppliers, the industry's need for "something different" has cosied up in a permanent seat.
"As a result, quail production as a snake food has now ramped up by 400 per cent, with the huge demand for quail products accelerating production to the point where it now needs its own person overlooking quails for a few hours each weekday.
"So, I'm definitely chasing an increase of casual junior workers, and a very particular person for the role of quail technician now."
Stages of severe drought and bushfires in Australia has also contributed to the rise in rescued wildlife, with rescue organisations regularly on the hunt for incoming food.
"Coming out of drought and bushfires periods, we've seen a huge increase in food demand through organisations like WIRES [Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service], which include rehabilitation for birds of prey," Mr Leisk said.
Ploughing more than $7000 into state-of-the-art egg incubation and hatching equipment, the new technology at Mr Leisk's farm has now increased rates of hatching production, working hard to keep up with the industry's high-demand.
"Four months ago, we were manually turning quail eggs every day, and now we've got systemised, professional equipment that will auto-turn up to 6000 eggs every 90-minutes," Mr Leisk explained.
"We can actually program the hatcher to increase and decrease on a per day basis, so the eggs will come out of the incubator and then straight into the hatching [equipment] within two days.
"The hatching machine can actually ramp up humidity - making the environment more moist - so that when the egg breaks, [chicks] can get out into a moister environment, which allows them an easier exit."
Mr Leisk also marked production increase as a result of the growing number of new reptile owners during the pandemic, which included warmer households over the last two winter periods.
"Part of the increase with demand is to do with the rise in the number of people keeping pet reptiles," he said.
"Because of COVID, there was also a significant portion of people home during the past two winter seasons; and the warmer the snake is, the more active the snake is, which results in an increase in breeding rates."
While the farm's latest investment in high-quality breeding equipment has boosted the number of quail babies on the ground, DoLittle Farm is still getting inundated with its regular orders.
"The demand for our traditional reptile food - mice and rats - is so strong that frozen, stockpiled feed is completely gone," he said.
"So we're working on a per-week-basis, with our current stock already assigned for next week to go straight out."
With commercial production thriving, business looks great for the farm owner, though, extra hands on deck poses as an immediate necessity.
"We're doing the absolute best we can with what we have; we just have to make sure that we're running at 105 per cent capacity all the time."
For farm work and other enquiries, Steve Leisk can be contacted via 0427 109 552.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.centralwesterndaily.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Catch up on our news headlines at Google News