Agriculture Business Week

HIGH-TECH CONTRACT GROWERS
Not the typical contract growers are the brothers Arvin and Angel Bryan Yumul who run a high-tech automated broiler farm in Lian, Batangas. Between the two of them, they raise 100,000 broilers at a time, housed in five buildings, each containing 20,000 chickens.

Angel Bryan, 36, and the younger brother, is a biology graduate from La Salle and he is the expert in farm animals, says his brother.

On the other hand, Arvin is a mechanical engineer who appears to be deeply obsessed with the latest gadgets that are available in the industry. He regularly travels to the United States to observe the latest machines and equipment that will make raising chickens as automated as possible. That is why you will not smell the usual foul odor encountered in an ordinary poultry farm when you visit their Lightning Ridge Farm in Brgy.Binubusan, Lian town. You will be lucky if you see a fly in their farm.

(more…)

Posted on July 16th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Antibiotics, Poultry, Probiotics. Comments: 11

Don’t look now, but the growing trend in poultry production is toward the use of more probiotics and less of antibiotics. This is the case not only in the raising of free-range chickens but also in the mass production of broilers – the so-called white chicken which are produced by the millions throughout the year

The growing trend is for a good reason. Consumers are increasingly becoming health-conscious and are shying away from poultry meat packed with antibiotic residue. Antibiotics, of course, are the main weapon of poultry raisers in subduing deadly respiratory diseases. The trouble is that many poultry raisers tend to depend largely on these drugs, to the extent that they are overdoing it. Many of them think that the more antibiotics they use, the better for their flock’s health.

The trouble is that the excessive use of antibiotics results in high antibiotic residue in the poultry meat. And this is bad because the consumers who eat the antibiotic-loaded chicken will imbibe the drug. And the possibility is that when the time comes that it is necessary for the consumer to take medication, the antibiotic may no longer be effective in treating the human ailment. The bacteria causing the disease may have developed resistance to the antibiotic.

(more…)

Posted on July 15th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Antibiotics, Poultry, Probiotics. Comments: None

A leading poultry nutrition expert discusses the current issues facing the global poultry world.

Dr. Andreas Kocher, Bio-Mos Applications manager of Alltech, is a poultry nutrition expert. His PhD dissertation was on the use of feed enzymes to improve the nutritive value of vegetable protein sources. He also worked a lot on feed additives. Originally based in Ireland, Dr. Kocher now lives and works in Australia and goes around the world not only to sell his company’s animal nutrition products but also to observe poultry trends and exchange notes with his fellow poultry experts especially on a topic which is close to his heart: salmonella and food safety.

We recently met with Dr. Kocher and discussed with him current issues affecting the global poultry industry.

Excerpts

What are your personal observations regarding the growth of the poultry industry in Asia?
It’s still quite a traditional industry. The stress in the environment is more challenging with the temperatures mounting. Here in the Philippines, it’s more diverse compared to say, Japan where it’s more advanced or India, where the industry is more fragmented.

(more…)

Posted on March 13th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Antibiotics, Birds, Chicken, Disease, Salmonella. Comments: None