AN Mpumalanga farmer had to hire a helicopter from Durban, at the cost of more than R250000 over the past three days, to transport feed for his chickens from a delivery point a mere 8km away. The floods have churned up the dirt road connecting farm to the main tar road to White River. “It is costing us R14110 an hour to transport feed 8km, and the helicopter has been flying for 18 hours since Tuesday,” the farm’s general manager Ernest Viljoen. He said some 50000 chickens died during the floods, and he has had to stop slaughtering those left over because his refrigerators are full. “The fridges are jammed with 310 tons of chickens, and we are running behind with slaughtering,” Viljoen said. “There are about 75000 chickens waiting to be slaughtered,” he said.