Agriculture Business Week

Management

Housing Equipment

Feeding troughs or feeders

Feeders can be placed inside or along the front of cages. When making feeders, consider the ease in cleaning and avoidance of feed spilage. Feed spilahe may be avoided by placing a metal or wooden strip along the inner mouth of the feed trough.

Waterers

To facilitate cleaning, the shape and size of the waterers should be semi circular, fairly wide and supported by an adjustable bracket to permit easier adjustment. It may have a removal stopper at the drainage end to allow for easier cleaning

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Posted on October 6th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken, Egg. Comments: None

Chicken broiler and egg production are the most progressive animal enterprises in the Philippines today. The poultry industry in fact began as the backyard enterprise but has shifted to the formation of very large integrated contract farming operations.

The growth of poultry industry in the Philippines has been impressive but its problems include inefficient management and the prevalence of many destructive poultry diseases and parasites cannot be ignored.

This manual provides technology and management know-how for poultry raising which we hope present poultry raisers and prospective poultry producers may find useful in effectively managing their poultry farms and also help them realize substantial financial returns from their enterprise in this period or high production cost inputs.

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Posted on October 5th, 2009 under Poultry, Technical Guide. Tags: Broiler, Chicken, Egg. Comments: 3

Most often many state colleges and universities don’t receive enough funds from the government to meet their various needs in running their institutions. That is why they are forced to undertake what they call Income-Generating Projects.

Just like the Central Luzon State University in Nueva Ecija. The university has wide land that it can use for various agricultural projects to generate income for its own use. Just like raising tilapia, growing rice and corn, breeding of goats and other animals for sale to the public, planting vegetables and other high-value crops, raising poultry and others.

Among its different projects, broiler contract growing is the school’s big money-maker. CLSU is one of the many contract growers of San Miguel Corporation in Central Luzon starting in 1995. Dr. Edgar Orden, the broiler farm’s project manager, said that they started with 12,000 chicks per batch. Today, it has increased to 24,000 birds. Next year, the production could double to 48,000 because two new tunnel-vent houses with a capacity of 12,000 birds each will be constructed soon.

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Posted on September 21st, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Biolyte, Broiler, Chicken, CLSU. Comments: 10

Encouraging people to invest in agribusiness can be more meaningful if they can be provided with some basic facts.

The domestic broiler industry has undergone a complete circle of starting from loose small farms into the entry of feedmilling companies, becoming integrators by supplying the day-old chicks, feeds, and going into contract growing, and into chicken dressing plants, and retail and institutional selling. And now, except for one or two integrators, the industry is being dominated by small regional players outsourcing their requirements from other small industry players.

Over the years, the likes of Robina Farms, Gen. Milling Corporation, Vitarich Corporation, RFM Corporation, had either completely been out of the industry, or had scaled down their operations that they are no longer their old self and having very little or negligible influence in the industry.

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Posted on August 26th, 2009 under Livestock, Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Pig, Robina Farm. Comments: None

Types of automatic weigher
A) Platform weighers
These are normally metal boxes, which are placed on the litter and are linked by a cable to a control box in the broiler house. They weigh one bird at the time and are self-tareing when no birds are on the scale. In other words the empty weight of the scale is zeroed each time to allow for build up of muck on the scale.
When a bird gets on the scale, the scale records a higher weight. It allows for oscillation in the recorded weight, and when the weight is stable, it will be recorded if it meets certain criteria. The weight has to be within a set percentage of the expected weight for that day. If it is not, (for example, if two or more birds go on the same time), the weight is discarded as not valid weight. These scales can give reasonable accurate estimates of the average weight.

Disadvantages of a platform weigher
1) The scale has to be empty of birds before the next bird weight is recorded. So if several birds stay on the scale for some time, no weighings are possible before they ALL get off!
2) The load cell and the electronic equipment in the platform weigher itself are near the litter where a build up of dampness and ammonia may take place. Over time, this can get into the electronics and cause failure.
3) A cable has to lead from the scale to the control box. At least part of this is on or under the litter, and can be damaged by birds or otherwise.

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Posted on July 29th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Birds, Broiler, Chicken, Weigh. Comments: None

To meet processors’ demands, you need to get your broilers into the factory on the pre-programmed day, close to target weight. Factories are now getting more precise as to what they want growers to achieve. On farm weighing helps you to meet these requirements.

There are two types of weighings
A) Spot weighings
These are occasional weighings and give a snapshot picture of the situation at the time they are taken. They may be used in the last week or two, just to check that your broilers will be bear to the final target weight. Or they can take place at intervals through the crop to check that the weight for age is in line with the breeder’ target for that age. In other words, to see if they are growing along the growth curve recommended by the breed company supplying the birds.
The logic of this is that if you can keep them on or close to this prescribed growth curve all the time, they WILL be on target weight at kill!

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Posted on July 25th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken, Weigh. Comments: 1

Multi-enzyme representation to broilers resulted in comparable growth performance.

With the increasing prices of raw materials used in poultry diets, the efficiency of production must rely on acquiring maximum nutrient utilization from different available feed materials. These raw materials entail maximizing the use of conventional and alternative ingredients which may contain a wide array of fibrous materials which are pervious to the animal’s endogenous enzymes. Exogenous multi-enzyme preparations capable of degrading a wide variety of substrates found in different raw materials are now being used to increase the value of feed materials and in turn, decreasing feed cost. In this regard, a series of trials were conducted to determine the effectiveness of a multi-enzyme preparation containing high enzymatic activities of xylanase, glucanase, galactosidase and mannanase in poultry.

Research and commercial farm data on the use of multienzymes in broiler diets
A university study was conducted to determine the effect of a multi-enzyme preparation tr.naopower, r.asy tsio Systems, Inc.) on the growth performance of broiler chickens fed low energy diets (Kunkuk University, 2000). A total of 300 broilers were utilized and randomly assigned to one of 3 treatments which consisted of 1.) PC contained adequate levels of all nutrients, 2.) NC which contained low levels of energy (96% ME), and 3.) NC + multi-enzyme at 0.02% (Grower diets ME 3100 Kcal/kg while finisher diets contained 2980 ME Kcal/kg. Results indicated that multi-enzyme supplementation to broilers fed low-energy diets (96% ME) resulted in comparable growth performance to those birds fed diets adequate in energy (Table 1).

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Posted on April 29th, 2009 under Poultry. Tags: Birds, Broiler, Chicken, Multi-Enzyme, Poultry. Comments: None

Two broiler raisers in Sta. Maria, Bulacan have revealed that the use of a locally formulated growth promoter has spelled their success in broiler raising. Both of them have stopped using foreign formulations that they were using earlier.

Their observations have been confirmed by the broiler production expert of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Dr. Edgar Orden who, as manager of the university’s broiler production for a long time already, is also using the same growth promoter.

They are Herminio Mateo and Deogracias “Bodie” Mendoza Jr., 57 and 52 years old, respectively. Besides raising broilers in their farms, they are also engaged in contract growing. They provide opportunities to small raisers without sufficient capital to raise broilers and earn some income by giving them chicks, feeds, medicine and Biolyte, a growth promoter manufactured by Novatech Vet and Biologicals Corporation, a sister corporation of Novatech AgriFoods Industries.

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Posted on October 19th, 2008 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler. Comments: 47

Dr. Raymond de Asis, a respected veterinarian, briefs us on the basics of starting a backyard broiler business.

The deluge of inquiries and phone calls in our office regarding the basics of poultry production and the mechanics of starting up a broiler business has prompted us to devote an article (a cover story, no less) on the topic. We’ve consulted with Dr. Raymond Peter G. de Asis, a veterinarian, and animal science expert who operates his own broiler business to shed light on the ABCs of broiler production.

The 32-year-old broiler expert is a master’s degree holder of animal science major in nutrition and minor in biochemistry from the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. It was also in the same state university where he obtained his doctor of veterinary medicine in 1988. Dr. de Asis is an active member of the United Broilers Association (UBRA). The following are excerpts from our interview:

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Posted on August 19th, 2008 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken. Comments: 109

Here’s a fearless forecast on what’s brewing for poultry breeders and broiler raisers.

The poultry industry is now on the threshold of a new scientific expansion in genetic improvement through molecular breeding. Established breeding practices, inspired by quantitative genetics, treat the animal as a black box with an imprecise number of genes that dictate its varied characteristics.

The 1980s significantly mark this technological timeline, where, slowly but surely, this black box was opened. The first major development that changed the surface of poultry breeding was the discovery of genetic markers. Genetic markers that shape the most widely used category were small anonymous repeat sequences of DNA called micro satellites that are scattered across the entire genome and can be used as landmarks to create a map of the genome.

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Posted on August 6th, 2008 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken, Poultry. Comments: None

Temperature
The ventilation system must guarantee that the day-old chickens maintain a body temperature. The most favorable temperature is very critical and in case of deviations, the mortality rate will rise considerably. Later in the production cycle, the temperature must ensure the best productivity. Normally, we distinguish between the actual temperature to be read on the thermometer and the sensed temperature. Air humidity and air velocity have great impact on the sensed temperature.

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Posted on July 29th, 2008 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken. Comments: 1

More and more Asian farmers are becoming aware of the relevance and use of professional ventilation systems to overcome the bad odor of their poultry farms.

A major barrier to sustainable development of effective and environment-friendly poultry production is the offensive odor farms and animal houses emit. More and more Asian farmers are becoming more aware of the relevance and use of professional ventilation systems to overcome this odor problem and to further improve their production efficiencies.

This need for ventilation systems poses superior opportunities for foreign agribusiness firms to showcase their equipment to their neighboring Asian counterparts. SKOV A/S, a Danish international manufactural of climate control and production monitoring for animal agricultural production which has set up offices in Bangkok, Thailand-deems the Philippine market full of potential.

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Posted on July 29th, 2008 under Poultry. Tags: Broiler, Chicken, Poultry, Ventilation. Comments: None