Agriculture Business Week

Three top growers of Foster Foods-Enrique Macapagal of Tarlac City, Roe Beltran of Malasiqui, and Precy Cuenca of San Carlos City, Pangasinan-have different stories to tell on why they are into broiler production. But they all point to two products of Novatech Vet and Biologicals as having played a key role in their success.

They said Biolyte and Nutradec have been responsible for their increased productivity since three years ago when Foster Foods started to provide these as part of their production inputs.

According to Dr. Ronaldo A. Sumaoang, president and general manager of the Novatech Group of Companies, Biolyte promotes growth and vitality. It contains biologically active growth factors as well as digestive enzymes that help the birds increase their digestion and assimilation efficiencies. As a result, higher feed conversion efficiency and growth rates are achieved.

“Biolyte does not treat any disease, but it makes the birds resistant to diseases,” Dr. Sumaoang said. Birds continuously treated with Biolyte show significant resistance to respiratory infections and other secondary infections caused by Escherichia coli.

Similarly, Nutradec is a formulation of vitamins A, D, E, and C; bile digestive enzymes; lecithin; panthotenic acid; and traces of selenium. It provides animals all the vitamins and nutrients they need to ensure normal growth, especially under unfavorable growth conditions.

Dr. Sumaoang said Nutradec also prevents excessive cholesterol synthesis in animals and allows optimum absorption of oil-based vitamins, fat, and fatty acids because of its bile extract content. It ensures maximum digestion of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as revitalizes animals. Its water-based property makes it more effective since it is more absorbable in the gut.

ENRIQUE MACAPAGAL
Enrique “Henry” Macapagal, 52, was the head of the accounting department of San Miguel Corp. brewery in San Fernando City, Pampanga when he decided to take an early retirement in 1996. The corporation then offered an attractive early retirement package to its employees and he thought the proceeds would be sufficient for him and his family to trek a new life.

SMC also had a retirement program called “Life after San Miguel”, which provided options for its retirees to engage in business with the help of the corporation. One of those options was to engage in poultry production as a contract grower of Magnolia; one of the business concerns of SMC.

Poultry production is not new to Henn. During his childhood he was helping take care of game cocks raised by his uncles. His wife, Mercy, also sold dressed chicken at the Talavera public market for 10 years starting when she was in high school. Her knowledge in the marketing of poultry products has helped a lot in the business side of their newfound enterprise.

“We knew we would have a good income if we work hard together,” Mercy said.

With the help of some relatives, they bought a land in Brgy. Maliwalu, Tarlac City and developed it immediately. They constructed two poultry houses that can accommodate 6,500 birds each, and started production in May 1997. Through the years, they kept on constructing additional houses with increasing income. At present, they already have seven poultry houses with a total capacity of 45,500 birds.

Recently, they wanted to construct an additional poultry house, but the prices of construction materials like coconut lumber have increased to high proportions. That’s because it is now difficult to find a supplier of coconut lumber as there is a ban on the sale of this product.

Mercy said their first year was truly a test on whether they would push through or not. Their first load was met by El Nino and high temperature, which were not favorable for poultry production. She recalled that there were days when 200 chicks were found dead and one could easily give up the enterprise under such a trying situation.

Luckily, their first load had a harvest recovery of 91 percent, which was higher than Magnolia’s base standard of 90 percent. Thus, they were, entitled to some bonuses from Magnolia.

Their third load in 1997 was their worst load ever. Their income was only P8 per bird. With 13,000 birds and even assuming a harvest recovery of 85 percent, the income could have still run to P84,000.

“It was when we had so many problems that we also got the highest income,” Mercy said.

In one grow, their chicks did not grow well because the chicks did not like the feeds provided by Magnolia. So they requested for an income adjustment, which they never did in their first six years with the company. After arguing strongly for the adjustment, they finally got P10 per bird.

After seven-and-a-half years with Magnolia, they shifted to Tyson. However, they had a problem so their relationship with Tyson lasted for only one year with six grows. They shifted to Foster Foods three years ago and their relationship with the company is “so far, so good.”

Of the 18 grows they produced with Foster Foods in three years, only two were not among the company’s top five producers. In the 16 grows, they were either No. 1 or No. 2, so they were entitled to receive bonuses. In one of the two grows that were not included among the top 5, however, they were No. 6 and their difference from the No. 5 was a matter of only P0.10 per bird.

Henry and Mercy stressed that Biolyte and Nutradec plus good inputs and management practices resulted in their excellent performance.

They observed that with Biolyte, “the birds grow big and fat like a balloon and their skin becomes reddish. The birds are so nice to look at.”

They mixed Biolyte with the birds’ drinking water on the following days after loading: Days 11 to 13, Days 24 to 27, and Days 31 to 37. Only 3 ml of Biolyte would be needed for every gallon of drinking water.

On the other hand, Mercy observed that with Nutradec the birds grow fast, with great appetite and are resistant to heat and stress. They mixed it with drinking water on the following days after loading: Days 8 to 10, Days 15 to 17, and Days 22 to 24. “Only 2 liters of Nutradec would be needed for 40,000 birds,” she added.

ROE BELTRAN
Roe Beltran, 63, rents a poultry farm in Brgy. Asin Este, Malasiqui, Pangasinan. Although he is a graduate of business administration, he has been into poultry production since 1992. He was the farm manager of Pastoral Farm in Pangasinan until 2002 when he decided to put up his own farm as a contract grower of Foster Foods. Pastoral Farm has a capacity of 350,000 birds and was already a contract grower of Foster Foods for three years before Roe resigned to put up his own farm.

He rented the farm facilities of Amor Farm in Malasiqui with a capacity of 25,000 birds and another farm in Bayambang with a capacity of 11,000 birds. After three years, however, he gave up the farm in Bayambang because of poor road condition.

In general, “production is good as long as the inputs like chicks, feeds and medication are also good,” Roe said.

From the very start, his income from contract growing was already good. He was getting a net income P 10 per bird at the start. In fact, out of 19 grows during the last three years, he was among the company’s top 5 producers in 11 grows. And even if he was not among the top 5 in 8 grows his minimum harvest recovery was still 95 percent with an average live weight of 1.65 kilos per bird and a feed conversion ratio of 1.84-1.86.

Roe said that the top 5 growers receive incentives that other growers don’t get. These include early release of their pay checks and priority loading and harvesting.

He has been using Biolyte for five years already or two years before he had a contract with Foster Foods.

Unlike Henry and Mercy, Roe starts giving Biolyte to his birds on Day 1 in the morning until Day 4. Thereafter, he gives Biolyte to the birds three days a week. He also provides Nutradec to his birds three days a week.

“The result is the immediate conversion of the feeds consumed by the birds into meat,” he said. He remembered that before he started to use Biolyte, undigested corn grits could be seen in the chicken manure. “With Biolyte and Nutradec, there is no corn grits in the manure, indicating that the birds had converted it into meat.”

Roe added that Nutradec provision results in rapid growth. He claimed that small birds that could not grow well would perform better if these are given additional Nutradec. He said that the birds could still reach a weight of 1.21.3 kilos.

PRECY CUENCA
Precy is a government employee. To earn additional income, she and her husband opted to engage in broiler production 10 years ago and she became a contract grower of Foster Foods two years after.

Precy has put up her poultry farm in San Carlos City, Pangasinan because she works in this city. Her poultry houses have a total capacity of 20,000 birds. In the 16 grows that she has been using Biolyte and Nutradec, she has been one of the company’s top 5 growers in three grows. Her harvest recovery is never below 96 percent, which is two points above the base standard of Foster Foods.

According to Roe, contract growers who exceed the company base standards receive some incentives. For example, the base standard for harvest recovery is 94 percent. Above 94 percent, a grower receives 25 centavos per bird for every point. Thus, a harvest recovery of 96 percent means an incentive of 50 centavos for every bird. In the case of Precy, she would have 19,200 birds with a 96 percent harvest recovery and, hence, she is entitled to an incentive of P9,200 per cycle.

On the other hand, Henry and Mercy, with the same harvest recovery, would receive P21,840 from 43,680 birds. while Roe would get P12,000 from 24,000 birds.

Other incentives include uniformity bonus and FCR bonus. To be entitled to a uniformity bonus of P0.75/bird, the birds in one delivery truck must weigh at least 1.57 kg/bird- 1.6 kg/bird. Above the FCR base standard, the grower gets an additional P0.13 per point per bird. Thus, if the FCR base standard is 1.99 and the grower’s FCR is 1.97, he gets an additional P0.26/bird.

When summed up, these incentives could mean additional income. Thus, the three growers can only be thankful for the effectiveness of Biolyte and Nutradec in improving their productivity.

Novatech Agri-food Industries Contact Details :
Address: Rm. 210 Anita Bldg. #1300 Quezon Avenue cor. Timog Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines

E-mail:     novatech@pldtdsl.net
Telephone:     (+632) 371-95-81
Fax:     (+632) 3716382