Agriculture Business Week

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

This age-old dilemma has resulted to countless debates for centuries, as it continues to baffle scientists, academicians, and even your community “tambays”.

It is indeed mind-boggling and may even cause people to scratch their heads, but for Martin Ozaeta, a simple Batangueño who hails from Lumil, San Jose, it is not important which came first, as long as it is economically rewarding.

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Here’s an in-depth look at the world of organic farming for both livestock and organic.

Organic agriculture in the Philippines is still in its embryonic phase when compared to agricultural sectors of other countries. However, organic agriculture in the country is fast gaining ground. Though organic agricultural production is limited, it is steadily growing, between 10-20% annually. The organic market in the country is currently considered as a “niche market.” But producers need not be discouraged. Top marketing experts have predicted that in the coming trends, it is in the niche markets where profits lie. Organic products are also penetrating the major supermarkets with a price premium ranging from 20% to 50% over non-organic products.

The President of Philippines approved a document on the “Promotion and Development of Organic Agriculture in the Philippines” in 2005-Executive Order 481. This recognizes the marketability potential of organic agriculture in the country and also provides government support to the development of the organic sector of agriculture. EO 481 also hopes to establish an organic agriculture program that will adopt and develop organic product markets, the education of more farmers, the extension of assistance to individuals and groups who are practicing and promoting these methods, and documentation and evaluation of the programs.

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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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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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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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Over the years, retired Police Major Avelino Peralta of Dauis Nome, Carmen, Cebu City has earned citations for his exemplary performance in law enforcement. Now he is again recognized for his outstanding performance, not in maintaining peace and order; but in animal raising.

He is recently named most outstanding smallhold animal raiser in Central Visayas Region. Good for this 65-years-old retired police that his childhood dream of having a profitable farm has come true at last. “Major P,” as his friends in the force fondly call him, used his retirement pay to acquire and establish 1.5-hectare farm. Here he raises 100 head of free-range native chicken and a number of sows and imported and native goats.

“Tiyo Bill,” as his neighbors call him, started with a few head of native goats. Then when he got his retirement pay five years ago he bought his first pair of Anglo Nubian breeders at P75,000 and crossed these with his natives. To further upgrade his ruminants, he bought a Boer by availing of the boar loan program of the Department of Agriculture Region 7.

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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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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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More and more knowledge and experience is being gained on how probiotics should be used to give reliable results. Through a more exact knowledge of the mode of action of each individual probiotic, it will be possible to make further improvements.

In spite of the unknown data on the physiology of the gut microflora, from the results obtained with  probiotic use, we are beginning to understand more about the variations involved. Indeed, despite their present low efficiency, it can be a starting point to achieve more efficient microbial strains, thanks to today’s biotechnological processes.

The use of foods derived from microbial activity goes back to the dawn of human civilisation and fermented milks were probably the first foods to contain active microorganisms. The beneficial effect of fermented milk was given a scientific basis at the beginning of the twentieth century by Elie Metchnikoff. Interest in the gut microflora revived after the Second World War and it the necessity that the microbial cells be viable. Probiotics are live micro-organisms that, when administered through the digestive route, are favourable to the host’s health.

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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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Gov. Deogracias Victor “DV” Savellano of Ilocos Sur was most excited when we visited his free-range chicken dispersal project recently. He said he has been approached by a company that exports food products to Japan. The exporter, according to him, would like to buy some 20 tons of free-range chickens every month.

No doubt the exporter must have learned about the chicken dispersal project that the Ilocos Sur governor launched late last year. The ambitious project aims to disperse initially 100 chicks to selected growers per barangay. That alone would mean 76,000 Sunshine chickens since there are more than 760 barangays in the whole province. Sunshine chicken is a fast-growing breed from the Sasso Company in France which can be raised in the farmers’ backyards. They could subsist on grasses, vegetable trimmings, weeds, insects and locally available grains like rice and corn. Of course, they could also be partly fed with commercial feed. But for purposes of exporting to Japan, the commercial feed should not contain antibiotics.

As of the end of last January, the provincial government has dispersed more than 40,000 21-day-old Sunshine chicks. They are first brooded in the Barangay Demonstration Farm in San Juan town before they are given to the farmers so that they would already be sturdy enough to be released in the farmers’ yards. The dispersal continues and this could go on and on.

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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.

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Probiotics are dietary supplements and live microorganisms containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeasts. According to the currently adopted definition by FAO/WHO, probiotics are: ‘Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host’.

Materials:
1/4 kg broken rice (binlud)
1 kg brown sugar or molasses

Equipment:
Cooking pot Shallow tray Old newspapers Straws for tying
Wide mouth bottles (for storing)

Procedure:
1. Cook porridge out of broken rice. Cool and spread on shallow tray about 1 inch thick.
2. Cover the tray with newspaper and lightly tie it with straw to prevent insects from crawling in.

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Is 2009 going to be a kind year for the poultry industry? Experts forecast a growth in production but say integrators will still be conservative on production expansion.

Towards the end of 2008, when leaders of the poultry industry met to assess and plan their strategies for 2009, a rather radical statement rang in the four corners of the air-conditioned hall “achieve world-class efficiencies or get out!” That seems to be the new battle cry of the poultry biggies nowadays especially when issues regarding competitiveness, disease control and export capabilities are thrown in the air with high decibel sounding emphasis. They say our advantage is that we are still an avian influenza (AI)-free country although that should not make us complacent. Truth to tell, achieving that global competitive status is still a far goal to achieve.

According to the University of Asia and Pacific’s Center for Food and Agri Business, the poultry industry recorded a growth of 4.4% during the first quarter of 2008. The industry is projected to grow by 4% in the first half and a growth of 5% in the second half of 2009. Given the level of grandparent imports, this growth could be higher. Chicken output usually falls during the second quarter (which coincides with the hot months) and increases during the third and fourth quarter (the relatively colder months). At the same time, the surges during the fourth quarter are due to the stronger demand during the holidays. Despite expected growth in production, integrators will still be conservative on production expansion. High production costs have been the limiting factor for them to produce more and export more chicken despite the Philippines’ distinction as a bird-flu country. Local demand is expected to increase as some pork consumers might tend to shift to chicken consumption due to high prices. Growth is projected at 5.5 6.5% in 2009.

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