MUSHROOM FARMING AS AN ANCHOR PROJECT

Something’s mushrooming, literally, in the rural town of San Enrique, Iloilo: a Mushroom Industry Development Project, led by the siblings of the now mayor, retired General (PA) Ramona Palabrica-Go. Mr. Joe Cape, husband of the mayor’s sister, Amy, manages the farm which is co-financed by brother Greg Palabrica, still based in the US. The Palabrica siblings, all of them retired or retiring respectively from their careers have decided collectively to give back to the town and their town-mates in whatever way possible. They have registered their family enterprise as San Enrique Agri-venture (S.E.A.) Enterprise. Mayor Palabrica- Go was the first to decide when she ran and won as Mayor of the town. The others decided on the mushroom project because of two basic reasons: it is a healthy food touted to be medicinal and that everybody who engages in the project can earn money. The project will also be the first of the many they have envisioned for the town. The first investment is in the laboratory and the growing building. The major concern of mushroom production is in the availability of quality spawns.With a small laboratory, the project is assured of a regular supply of spawns. The growing area should also be cool, sanitized and free from contaminants since mushrooms, especially the oyster species are sensitive to the environment. To perfect the technology, Joe went through a short course at UPLB and tapped the services of Mr. Bert Cablas, a teacher-entrepreneur based in San Miguel, Iloilo who had been successfully growing oyster mushrooms for more than 15 years and is the major supplier of supermarkets and hotels in Iloilo City. Bert Cablas transferred his technology to them unselfishly. Producing Oyster Mushroom. Joe follows the standard technology for producing oyster mushroom spawns. The spawns are first cultured in Potato Dextrose Agar medium and then transferred to a sorghum bed inside a sterilized whiskey or rum bottles. Once the mycelium have grown and ready for culture they are seeded to fruiting bags of sterilized saw dust based culture media and placed in the growing chambers. In two to three weeks, the mushroom buttons start to form mycelia and emerge from the tiny holes cut on all sides of the plastic fruiting bags. In a few more days, the mushroom buttons emerge from the holes and start to grow. In three to four days, the mushrooms have fully grown and are ready to harvest. The fully grown mushrooms are fully pulled out of the holes they have grown in to avoid rotting and contaminating the rest of the fruiting bags. The harvested oyster mushroom are sorted, cleaned and weighed according to the packaging. 125 gram packs are sold at P35.00/pack while 250 gram packs are sold at P65.00. Kilogram packs sell at P250.00 ex farm At present, the farm produces 7-10 kilograms daily on about 7,000 fruiting bags. The building has a capacity of 20,000 bags capable of producing between 20-25 kilograms daily. Joe is now developing the market for the fresh mushroom. The present harvest is not even enough to fill the demand in the community but Joe is already exploring the market of Passi City which is about 4.5 kilometers away. Efforts are also being made to develop other forms of products so that all the produce of the farms and ultimately, the farmer-cooperators will be sold out and both the enterprise and the farmer cooperators are able to realize stable income from the industry. Grow-out and Reach Out Scheme: Mayor Ramona Palabric-Go is keen on the project because of the high returns for the industry participants. Right now, she is hard at work launching livelihood projects so that the constituents of her town who are landless but have a few square meters of space in their yards can avail of the grow-out program where the S.E.A. will provide them with ready to grow fruiting bags at a low price while assuring them of a stable high priced market. She sees the enterprise launched by her siblings as an anchor project in mushroom production. Her sister Amy said that the laboratory is easy to expand since there is still space behind and the capacity can be increased to meet the demand for fruiting bags to be sold at cost to the unemployed housewives, out of school youth, indigenous people and other participants who want stable income from the project. “The municipality and other concerned agencies like the DSWD will work hand in hand to train these unemployed constituents and we will find a good financing scheme where they will also invest a small fund so that there will be ‘ownership’ of the project and also to ensure that they will not think this is a dole out and therefore take good care of it”, Mayor Palabrica-Go said. Mr. Bert Cablas, their consultant who had been in the business for a long time now said that a small mushroom livelihood is ideal for the unemployed. If one targets a daily income of P500.00, he needs to produce between 2-4 kilos of oyster mushroom daily. So he needs about 200-250 fruiting bags which can be accommodated in about 6 square meters of space. The housing conceived will utilize roofing and walling materials like cogon and coconut leaves because they are naturally cool and serves as insulators from ambient heat. Coconut shingles are easy to make and cogon can be gathered from abandoned land so farmers and other cooperators will not need to spend much for their housing which shall be one of their counterparts. By products of mushroom production: The exhausted fruiting bags are ideal as growing media for ornamentals and vegetables. The farmer-cooperators can launch an additional livelihood project once the mushroom grow out has started. They can plant vegetables and high value ornamentals either in plots or in pots. The organic media is nutrient rich after it had been fully decomposed by the mushroom which is a fungus. Fungi feed on cellulose contained in sawdust resulting to a rich organic medium for plants. The future of mushroom in San Enrique: For more than thirty years our town had hibernated and we now have the opportunity to make things right for our people. Our farmers and entrepreneurs are focused on low value farming of rice sugarcane and corn. Coffee and cacao are a small industry but have the potential to expand. With so many sawmills in our town due to the farmed trees available, there is a large amount of sawdust which are only used as land fill. These are a resource that can earn money for mushroom farmers. “I am upbeat about making mushroom as one of our major products. While only a limited number of our people can grow rich in sugarcane and rice, mushroom is one industry that everybody can participate and grow with”, said Mayor Palabrica-Go.

HOW TO MAKE SOY MILK AND YOGURT

My leg injury has forced me to stay at home this last two weeks but it has not prevented me from doing more hands-on technology acquisition. I had been intrigued about the soy yogurt which they say is easy to make using almost the same method used for milk. I already know how to make soy milk and had bought last year, a blender with an attachment specifically designed to extract milk from soybeans. The attachment has simplified soy milk making and it takes just about 2 minutes to make a batch of soy milk.

Begin by making soy milk:

To make one liter of soy milk, you would need about 125 grams of dried soybeans soaked for about 12 hours where water is replaced two to three times. For the standard blender, liquify the soaked soy milk until the whole batch is finely ground. Strain the milk in a clean cotton cloth (katsa which is flour sack cut into manageable size is best and cheapest material). Set aside the solids which is called “okara” in other countries and “sapal” in our dialect. It is protein rich and is added to meat as extender or can be cooked solely as a burger. Boil the soymilk for 15 minutes to fully cook it. You would be able to get about one liter of milk after the process.

To make soy milk yogurt:

Add about two (2) tablespoons of sugar to the soy milk and stir until dissolved. Sugar will act as feed for the lacto-baccilus that coagulates the milk into yogurt. Cool soy milk to 45% Celsius and add yogurt starter and place this inside a yogurt incubator. I made mine out of a styrofoam ice chest where I installed a thermostat so that the temperature inside the incubator is maintained at 46-50 degrees Celsius. Don't cover the lid of the soymilk tightly or if safe or hygienic, remove the cover to allow air circulation. Incubate for 6-8 hours or overnight. By morning, you will have soy yogurt.

If you don't have an incubator, just look for an ice ice chest. To maintain the desired temperature, heat water to about 55 degrees Celsius and pour inside the ice chest and place the container of soymilk on top using some containers to act as pontoon. Check temperature every 3 hours and add heated water when temperature has dropped. I am into my third batch of soy yogurt which probably cost me just P15.00 per liter.

STAND ASIDE HYBRID RICE, HERE COMES OPEN POLLINATED BSD-300

Hybrid rices are now the talk of the town with its potential to double and even triple the yields of rice farms. It is being promoted by Asian governments as the answer to the perennial problem of shortage. With the breeding perfected by a Chinese scientist several decades ago, hybrid rice seeds are now a monopoly of large companies mostly multi-nationals which saw mega income by cornering the production of seeds.

Hybrid rice seed production is a highly technical process that needs expertise. But the rewards are high because of the margin of profit. Even producing a mere 2 tons of rice seeds per hectare, a multi-natonal company can easily gross P400,000 per hectare every six months, more than what they can get from a hectare of export banana. Thus, large business jumped into the band wagon. The small farmer having limited expertise in hybridization will have no option but to buy the seeds being sold at exorbitant prices.

Hybrid rice seed companies claim a range of 9-16 metric tons of rice produced per hectare, while open pollinated varieties released by rice research institutions can barely reach seven metric tons at controlled conditions and much less under farmer conditions. Thus farmers are attracted to buying hybrid rice seeds because of the prospect of having higher yield that translate to higher income perunit of farm land.

What if farmers can grow their own open pollinated rice strains that can approximate if not out yield hybrid rice varieties? What if these rice varieties are not only high producers but have good eating qualities as well? The benefits are practically limitless! They will then get out from the clutches of large business selling hybrid rice seeds and they can produce their own seeds as well as sell to other rice farmers at a more affordable price. Hybrid seeds sold by multinational companies cost P3,000 per 15 kilograms or a whooping P200/kilogram. A farmer needs 15 kilograms of rice seeds per hectare. If farmers can produce their own they can under cut these commercial sellers at even half the price.

Comes now BSD-300, an open pollinated rice variety developed by Freddie Noriel of Nueva Ecija coming from Indonesia. Noriel painstakingly improved the original strain by selection and the

strain can now produce an average of 300 cavans per hectare maily due to its long panicles and large grains growing from a dense multiple tiller.

Planted like the hybrid seeds, meaning about 15 kilograms of seeds per hectare at one seedling per hill spaces about 25 x 25 centimeters, the strain is so vigorous that at maximum growth stage, the productive tillers practically crowd each other, even more densely than hybrid varieties.

I bought a few kilograms of seeds from a Manila dealer last February and it was only last June that we planted this at Brgy. Lapayon, Leganes because nobody was interested to lend or lease me their land in my home town. We simulated farmer conditions, meaning, sparingly applying chemical fertilizers at a rate of only 2 bags of 14-14-14 and one bag urea per hectare. The farmer cooperator also insisted not to use any chemical pesticide since he intended to mill the rice for their own consumption if we cannot sell the produce as seeds. For more than two decades now, my friend had been eating pesticide free rice.

The BSD-300 plants are now 45 days old and almost at panicle emergence stage. Comparing the growth so far with those of the neighbors, one can immediately notice the difference. The tillers of BSD-300 are twice as many and robust as the open pollinated variety. The leaves are wider and longer. The neighboring OP had already been sprayed 5 times with insecticide while the BSD 300 never got a single spray because the farmer never believed in pesticides as an option.

BSD-300 compares well with this hybrid rice variety

According to the developer, BSD-300 will mature at 105 days compared to most hybrids which mature in 120 days or so. We are now observing other parameters such as the length of the panicles and the number of grains per panicle. Also eagerly awaited is the ultimate indicator which is the actual yield in the 1,000 sq.meters which will simply be extrapolated ten times to get the yield per hectare. If Noriel is to be believed, this batch of BSD-300 will yield about 350 cavans per hectare, comparative if not better than any hybrid variety now being planted in the country.

HOW TO RAISE GAMEFOWLS AT A LOWER COST

By Larry Locara

Game fowls are expensive to raise but with a few tricks and sound fundamentals, a small time raiser can raise healthy stags and cocks and earn at least P70 per month per stag or about P700 per head of a ten month old stag. Here's how:

*Selecting the breeding stocks is the most crucial aspect if one has to get into game fowl raising. The industry is so competitive that one has to raise good fowls that can hold its own in the cockpit. The main criteria for selection for small scale game fowl breeding are the looks, winning percentage of the brood cock and the brothers of the hens, conformation and size (the offspring should weight between 1.9 to 2.1 kilograms for the stags with a proportionate height for its weight.

It helps if the breeding stocks came from a known breeder or cock-fighter or one has connections to breeders who will help him sell later.

When selecting brood stocks, select true to types or those looking very close to the breeds that you claim they are. If you are a new comer, get advice from those who have the experience in raising and fighting stags and cocks because most often, they know which breed it is with just one glance.

*Determine the level or size of your operation so that you can feed your chickens well. For small breeders, it is wise to start with a brood cock and two hens, known popularly as a trio. This level will enable you to raise at least 10 stags during the stag banding season by asking a breeder-friend to have your chicks banded under his name and maybe 20 more during the off season, which you can later sell as cocks. Each cock or hen eats between 60 to 100 grams per day. Hens are voracious eaters mainly due to their need to eat more so they produce eggs for hatching.

*As soon as you can identify the males from the females, cull the female chicks you think won't pass your criteria as next yera's breeders and feed the culls with a lower cost but high protein feeds so that they will also grow fast for the table. During the off season, feed the hens with a low protein diet so they won't lay eggs but still maintain their health.

*Don't scrimp on feeds for the stags and cocks. Their health is the first criteria for buyers. Stag and cocks with good bodies and without fat deposits (bul-o/sapola) are most sought after. While specialized feeds for game fowls are expensive, you can substitute with feeds provided you take note of the protein, carbohydrates and vitamin/mineral/amino acids content so that the stags will grow well and with good conformation, which are also the criteria for selection by buyers. One practice of Villa Arevalo small raisers is to use broiler mash or pellets and add broken rice (binlud) during the late growing stage. They also use cheap but effective vitamin-mineral preparations often used for large flocks. By buying as a group and dividing the product among themselves, they often save as much as 25 percent of the cost compared to the small packaging such as sachet or bottles.

*Use technologies to lessen costs such as the use of “probiotics”, which you can make at home. The probiotics technology or the Natural Farming System is the technology, which harnesses beneficial micro organisms in farming and animal raising. You may go to the nearest agriculture office for more information and technology transfer.

*Compute your costs well and impute all possible cost areas so that you can determine your selling price. The industry standard for most small scale raisers is to price the chickens at P100 per month of rearing for which they would earn about P30 per head per month of rearing. However, if one has already the reputation of raising winning lines, the price goes up to the level that can be met by the buyers. Large scale or big breeders sell at a range between P6,000 to P12,000 per head at ten months of age.

*Spar the stags as often as possible. Sparring develops the fighting skill, which may be inherent or bred in but is fine tuned with constant practice. However make sure that you are watchful and have equipped your stags with gloves and reduced the possibility of hitting at hard objects. The feet of the stags are still tender and are easily damaged when they hit at each other.

*Study everything about cockfighting so that when buyers come, you can discuss details with them and which is one of your come-on. Read as much and surf the internet for cockfighting communities which are helpful especially to newcomers. Some of these sites are http://sabong.net.ph; http://sabungero.trip-media.com; http://www.supermax2010.webs.com/ and many others.

*Most importantly, you should love what you are doing but never lose sight of your goal which is to sell the stags and cocks, not to fight them yourself. Always remember that you will join this industry to earn.

- See more at: http://www.iloilonewstoday.com/component/content/article/144-other-views/6284-low-cost-game-fowl-raising.html#sthash.jvijZD8V.dpuf

Read more about Between by ■ The News Today

By Larry Locara

Game fowls are expensive to raise but with a few tricks and sound fundamentals, a small time raiser can raise healthy stags and cocks and earn at least P70 per month per stag or about P700 per head of a ten month old stag. Here's how:

*Selecting the breeding stocks is the most crucial aspect if one has to get into game fowl raising. The industry is so competitive that one has to raise good fowls that can hold its own in the cockpit. The main criteria for selection for small scale game fowl breeding are the looks, winning percentage of the brood cock and the brothers of the hens, conformation and size (the offspring should weight between 1.9 to 2.1 kilograms for the stags with a proportionate height for its weight.

It helps if the breeding stocks came from a known breeder or cock-fighter or one has connections to breeders who will help him sell later.

When selecting brood stocks, select true to types or those looking very close to the breeds that you claim they are. If you are a new comer, get advice from those who have the experience in raising and fighting stags and cocks because most often, they know which breed it is with just one glance.

*Determine the level or size of your operation so that you can feed your chickens well. For small breeders, it is wise to start with a brood cock and two hens, known popularly as a trio. This level will enable you to raise at least 10 stags during the stag banding season by asking a breeder-friend to have your chicks banded under his name and maybe 20 more during the off season, which you can later sell as cocks. Each cock or hen eats between 60 to 100 grams per day. Hens are voracious eaters mainly due to their need to eat more so they produce eggs for hatching.

*As soon as you can identify the males from the females, cull the female chicks you think won't pass your criteria as next yera's breeders and feed the culls with a lower cost but high protein feeds so that they will also grow fast for the table. During the off season, feed the hens with a low protein diet so they won't lay eggs but still maintain their health.

*Don't scrimp on feeds for the stags and cocks. Their health is the first criteria for buyers. Stag and cocks with good bodies and without fat deposits (bul-o/sapola) are most sought after. While specialized feeds for game fowls are expensive, you can substitute with feeds provided you take note of the protein, carbohydrates and vitamin/mineral/amino acids content so that the stags will grow well and with good conformation, which are also the criteria for selection by buyers. One practice of Villa Arevalo small raisers is to use broiler mash or pellets and add broken rice (binlud) during the late growing stage. They also use cheap but effective vitamin-mineral preparations often used for large flocks. By buying as a group and dividing the product among themselves, they often save as much as 25 percent of the cost compared to the small packaging such as sachet or bottles.

*Use technologies to lessen costs such as the use of “probiotics”, which you can make at home. The probiotics technology or the Natural Farming System is the technology, which harnesses beneficial micro organisms in farming and animal raising. You may go to the nearest agriculture office for more information and technology transfer.

*Compute your costs well and impute all possible cost areas so that you can determine your selling price. The industry standard for most small scale raisers is to price the chickens at P100 per month of rearing for which they would earn about P30 per head per month of rearing. However, if one has already the reputation of raising winning lines, the price goes up to the level that can be met by the buyers. Large scale or big breeders sell at a range between P6,000 to P12,000 per head at ten months of age.

*Spar the stags as often as possible. Sparring develops the fighting skill, which may be inherent or bred in but is fine tuned with constant practice. However make sure that you are watchful and have equipped your stags with gloves and reduced the possibility of hitting at hard objects. The feet of the stags are still tender and are easily damaged when they hit at each other.

*Study everything about cockfighting so that when buyers come, you can discuss details with them and which is one of your come-on. Read as much and surf the internet for cockfighting communities which are helpful especially to newcomers. Some of these sites are http://sabong.net.ph; http://sabungero.trip-media.com; http://www.supermax2010.webs.com/ and many others.

*Most importantly, you should love what you are doing but never lose sight of your goal which is to sell the stags and cocks, not to fight them yourself. Always remember that you will join this industry to earn.

Read more about Between by ■ The News Today

Problems are Opportunities (7): Raise Chickens for Eggs and Meat (Part 5)

February 28, 2014 | Filed under: Agriculture | Posted by: Larry Locara

The Dangers of Antibiotics in Chicken Raising:

Modern living has brought with it modern but more virulent diseases. Medical discoveries like antibiotics, starting with penicillin were initially hailed as the ultimate cure only to be found that bacteria and other disease-causing microorganisms evolve to become resistant to them. Then comes the never ending phenomenon to discover newer versions of antibiotics just to combat resistant bacteria.

In earlier decades, antibiotics were also included in the feeds for livestock. The argument was that it was best to incorporate them so that they would be ingested and thus act as prophylactic or as prevention. It was later found that the regular use of these substances will also cause bacteria to evolve and thus become resistant. The more alarming findings however is that livestock grown on antibiotics have residue build-up in their bodies that when these animals are slaughtered for human consumption, these residues will also be ingested and will eventually cause bacterial resistance. People would then need higher doses and newer and more expensive versions of antibiotics.

Even the administration of antibiotics to treat livestock diseases should follow the correct and precise protocol to ensure that treatment is total and that the animal is treated successfully. Incorrect use of antibiotics will only enable surviving pathogens to resist a particular type and persist to survive within the body of the animal and cause further damage and eventual death.

This is exactly the phenomenon in chickens. In commercial broiler chicken production, the chickens are given prophylactics at about 12 to 16 days so that by the time of harvest which is about 28-32 days, they would appear healthy and pass the standards of the integrator. This period which is about 14 to 16 days from slaughter is considered safe as the withdrawal period of at least 7 days had been met. However there are cases that the flock is affected on the 24-25th days and at the time of harvest, would appear healthy and thus, pass the standards for slaughter.

This situation is even more serious in commercial egg production. When layer chickens are affected with bacterial infection, the raisers often times administer antibiotics without isolating the sick birds which continue to lay eggs. Antibiotics ingested are not totally synthesized and rendered inactive within the fowls’ bodies and a large concentration is still found in the eggs laid. The correct protocol for this is to destroy the eggs by composting and not fed to other animals like pigs. But the common attitude among the farmers is to include the eggs in the batch for sale, after all, our country still lacks sophisticated systems for monitor food safety.

Thus the alternative to commercial chicken raising (both meat and eggs) is still the traditional way where the chickens are raised sans antibiotics and other dangerous substances such as growth hormones which are as dangerous as antibiotics. While at the early stages, the chickens are raised in confinement or semi-confinement to give them a head start, they are then hardened to be released on full range after a while where they will forage the major portion of their diet and are supplemented with nutrient rich feed only when necessary. The range is developed fully and planted with nutrient rich feed like grasses, legumes and medicinal plants which can directly cure or boost the immune system of chickens.

A particular example is to grow malunggay along borders and in straight rows while planting sorghum, grains like the barnyard grass, legumes like rice-beans and munggo in between. The tauri and munggo are allowed to pod and shatter so that the free range chickens can feed on them. The tender leaves are also rich fodder for them as they are high in proteins and amino acids. On certain portions of the range, medicinal plants are established like oregano, lagundi and apat-apat which are considered medicinal and immune system boosters. Oregano is an important plant in livestock raising as they are also grazed or fed on instinctively by chickens to treat their respiratory diseases.

Farmers who raise chickens on the free range also claim that their chickens are tastier than the commercially raised versions. For one, chickens harvested at 4-5 months old have started to develop a stronger tissue system which is already rich in glutamine which is an amino acid known to give flavor to meat. But the best premium for chickens raised naturally is their total absence of antibiotics in their meat. Eggs from chickens raised on the range are also said to be of deeper yolk color than their commercial cousins. This is due to the diet of fresh grasses which contain high levels of natural beta-carotene which is responsible for the yellow pigmentation. Commercial eggs are also yellow colored because of the chemical ingredients which is given through the feeds.

Problems are Opportunities (8): Raise Chickens for Eggs and Meat (Part 6)

March 7, 2014 | Filed under: Agriculture | Posted by: Larry Locara

Fast Growing Meat Type Chickens

Last week on our visit to the proposed Demonstration Farm of the Municipality of Mina, we met Mr. Gerry Suarnaba, a retired army man who lives just outside the perimeter fence of the farm. He gardens a small part of the area inside where he plants a variety of vegetables. What caught our attention were several chickens running around. The hen is a large meat type popularly called Kabir and the roosters were the asil types called locally as jolo. Gerry crosses the jolo males with the kabir hens and says that the offsprings are as fast growing as the kabirs and as resistant as the jolo or asils.

Being promoted as a free range chicken, the kabirs came into the country from Europe or Middle East where they are grown like the common white broiler chickens that we are familiar with. They were also selectively bred for performance, meaning that the breeders sought to improve the breed for fast growth and high meat recovery. Thus in close confinement and commercial operations, the kabirs may perform as well as the white broiler type can can be harvested in the same number of days it takes the white breeds to grow.

Kabir Eggs

Gold jolo with kabir hen

Red jolo with kabir hen

Gerry Suarnaba with a kabir hen

Municipal Agri Officer Xykster Pelaez holding a jolo cock

Kabir hen with newly hatched chicks

As a meat type free range chicken, the kabirs offer an advantage over the traditional native chickens we normally find in the rural areas. They grow fast, voraciously eats anything edible and can be as hardy as the native strains. They are also are docile and won’t stray away from their pasture when food is available. Unlike the native chickens which are flighty, kabirs can’t take off due to their heavy bodies and and short wing spans.

There are variations of the kabir breed. Other entrepreneurs have imported the Sasso from France a few years back and there are already breeders who specialize in selling day old chicks of this breed. There’s also the Sunshine free range chickens that looks like the sasso. Another breed is the naked neck chicken popularly called the cobra which originated in Eastern Europe, particularly from the Transylvania region also famous for the Count Dracula story. This breed is also known to be hardy and fast growing and is known to be made a parent line for free range chickens. The prominent feature of this breed is that its neck is devoid of feathers, thus it is popularly called a cobra chicken.

Breeding method for free range fast growing strains:

The basic method for breeding free range chicken is to cross totally unrelated breeds. In the case of Ka Gerry, he has jolo or asil brood cocks mated to his kabir hens. Since he has two cocks, he can mate the first cocks to the hens first then mate the next cock to the second generation of kabir x asil so that he comes up with fast growing range-adapted chickens. The resulting offspring will be as fast growing as the kabir hen but more resistant to weather conditions of the field. The same is true with other fast growing imported breeds like the sasso. They can be mated with the asils or other hardy large types of chickens.

There are also small farmers who do a reverse breeding program. They look for a large cock to mate with their small native hens and retain the resulting pullets for the next generation of breeding while selling the cockerels. Then on the next generation of breeding, they find another large rooster to replace the original rooster. Both methods are variations of hybridization where the objective is to develop strength in the individuals through complementation where the best characters of both parents are transferred to the offspring. (to be continued).

The dangers of modern chicken production

Modern chicken production strives to provide a constant supply of chickens and eggs to the consumers. The demand for both has led to the development of technologies for efficient production, from genetics to feeding, to disease control and to the inclusion of growth hormones in the diet or directly injected to the bodies of chickens. To enable layers to lay consistently and for more number of days per year, hormones are also included in the diets.

When antibiotics were first found to help fight disease in humans, animal scientists studied its applications in chicken and livestock production. By the 1950s, it was standard procedure to include antibiotics in commercial feeds and as a prevention measure, veterinary companies were selling soluble antibiotics coupled to vitamin-minerals as a standard supplement allegedly to boost immune systems and as a disease prevention mechanism.

The widespread use of antibiotics however has sown a wave of disease resistant bacteria where scientists scrambled to find new generation antibiotics just to check in resistant strains that do not anymore respond to the present types of antibiotics being added to the ration or to the water of chickens. These new antibiotics have also become more expensive that they have added to the production cost of both meat and egg type of chickens.

The need for efficient feed conversion and more eggs laid also led to the research of hormones and their use in livestock. By the late 1950s, the use of hormones became standard in the livestock industry and by the early part of the 1970s, a widely used synthetic hormone, DES (diethylstilboestrol)  had been banned due to findings that it increases the risk of cancer. The efficiency brought about by hormone use however has encouraged producers to continue the use of hormones in other forms and research in this line even intensified.

While the use of hormones is still widespread in large livestock like feeder or finisher cattle, poultry industry insiders contend that there is no need for hormones use in poultry, especially broilers which are harvested in less than 30 days now. They claim that the truth is that no hormones are used in poultry production. This is according to Dr Tom Tabler (Extension Professor), Jessica Wells (Extension Instructor) and Dr Wei Zhai (Assistant Research Professor, Poultry Science) of Mississippi State University Extension Service.

There are several reasons why broilers now. First is genetics: due to the competition, breeding companies breed the fastest growing strains and usually use hybridization which had been tested to produce fast growing and more resistant chickens. Geneticists now have produced chickens which grow to at least 1.2 kilograms in just 28 days.

Second is the new findings in nutrition that allow feed companies to produce the best quality feeds at the least possible cost without the use of additives. Each type or strain of chickens are also studied to determine their exact nutritional requirements so that there is no waste and that optimal growth is attained.

Third is that housing and other environmental requirements are now studied and the best possible growing environment for chickens are given. Concerns such as floor space requirements, ventilation, and other aspects are well taken cared of in the design of housing so that the chickens can grow at their fastest rate.

This new information should serve to somehow allay the fears of consumers on eating broilers or fast growing chickens. However, native chickens which are grown for a longer period tends to be more flavorful due to well developed tissues where glutamine, an amino acid that gives flavor had been fully developed. This is also the reason why for soups, older chickens are preferred while for fried chickens, the fast growing broilers are used.

Seniors and Still Full of Energy

March 28, 2014 | Filed under: Agriculture | Posted by: Larry Locara

Our visit to the on-going construction of a new farm to market road at Barangay Pandan, Dingle rewarded us with an insight on how senior citizens can still remain productive despite advancing age. Being in the countryside offers a big advantage to these people who can putter around their yard and exercise their limbs and muscles and thus prevent atrophy and debilitation.

Manong Manny Dator, a resident since birth of Brgy. Pandan is in his mid-70s and tapping the coconuts in his front yard is his way of spending his time. With about 6 coconuts planted close to each other, he has defied farming logic of close spacing where it is assumed that closely spaced plants will not bear fruits, or nuts in the case of coconuts. Just about 5 meters apart, his coconuts, the yellow dwarf variety once made popular by the Philippine Coconut Authority, are tapped for its sap or plant juice and either drank as tuba or fermented sap or directly made into vinegar.

Manang Regina Vilłasana holding her set 4kg rooster that came out of her native chickens

To make things easier for him, he has connected the coconuts with a series of big bamboo poles so once he is up tapping one floral shoot, he can proceed to the next palm without getting down, a tedious and painful task for him at his age. On a given day, his six palms produce not less than 5 liters, which if sold as fresh tuba or slightly fermented sap will sell for not less than P100.00, but will sell for P225.00 if fermented to vinegar in one month or more. Manong Manny ages his stocks of vinegar in a corner of his home lot where buyers can simply pass by and get their stocks. He has systematically arranged the bottles so that he knows instantly which bottles are already acidic and ready to sell.

With his family, Manny is getting his whole yard ready for a possible renovation into a home type resort and eating destination in the barangay. The soon to be completed road building project would now make his place easy to access and visitors can partake of clean healthful coconut sap drink, fresh young coconut, fresh vegetables and freshly killed native chickens. His vinegar sells for about P15.00 per lapad or the flat bottle originally containing rum, whiskey or brandy (330 ml.), while his tuba sells for about P20.00 per liter.

Nearby is Manang Regina Villasana who specializes in raising improved native chickens. Her stocks originally came from the darag strain now being popularized by the academe at WVSU and CPU. She complained that apparently that strain in synthetic and prone to diseases because of heavy inbreeding so she decided to do her own brand of breeding. She looked for fast growing strains and started again with the commercial day old chicks intended for growing to 1.5 kilos in 30 to 40 days. She chose the pullets to breed with a rooster from the darag batch and incubated the eggs through the surrogate hens that sit on eggs.

Manong Manny Dator beside one of the palms he taps for coco sap which naturally ferments to contain alcohol and further ferments to become vinegar

Every new generation, she selects same colored chickens to mate for the next generation. Now she has a brood of eight hens colored brown red just like the color of kabir chickens. They also approximate the size of these imported breed but her strain or breed is more resistant to diseases since their genetic make up is just like the darag chickens too. But her total population is never below 100 heads of all ages because of the regular batch that she sells. People already know her and go to her regularly to buy her native chickens. They find her chickens healthy and antibiotics free.

Manang Regina has a practical feeding method. She feeds her newly hatched chicks with a commercial ration for two weeks after which, she gradually shift them to her homemade ration she she herself makes. Once the chicks are ready to be ranged, she directs them together with the surrogate hen to the pile of leaves which she purposely collects and wets thoroughly so that termites will gradually colonize. Termites are excellent feed for chickens as their bodies are rich in amino acids and fats. Termites are also highly digestible. The surrogate hen teaches the chicks how to scratch and feed among the piles of leaves and other debris. Using this method, Regina not only saves on feed and management but also gives her chickens the best nutrition.

At her age, Regina is sprightly and full of energy because of the farm environment and the availability of vegetables that her family grows. Like any progressive farmer, she indulges in healthful food year round by growing them herself. She keeps abreast of the latest in farming because she is a member of the Community-based Participatory Action Research, a project of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit 6 under the able leadership of Director Larry Nacionales.

Problems are Opportunities (3): Raise Chickens for Eggs and Meat

Another of Yolanda's aftermath is the sudden disappearance of a table essential: the ubiquitous egg that's good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. And when they appeared, they have become expensive and unaffordable to the lower consuming class.

This problem however is an opportunity for those with a small space especially with a small area that can produce enough grass for forage. You can then raise a few heads of chickens for its meat or if you have the right breed, for eggs. If you have a small space in your front or backyard and are also engaged in small gardening where you raise plants for aesthetics or for food, chickens are an essential part of your system. Their manure is the most ideal organic fertilizer you need.

Breeds to raise:

Depending on your interest, you can choose from the many breeds available. If you have an interest for game fowls whose offsprings you can fight or sell to cockfighters, they are most ideal in the Ilonggo setting where cockfights are popular event and many earn from raising a few heads right in the yard. For decades now, Iloilo and negros are known as the game fowl center of the country where people go to buy quality game fowls, even those raised by small breeders and backyard raisers who breed to sell at a lower price.

Many of the residents of Villa Arevalo and the municipality of Oton engage in small scale game chicken raising for livelihood. While the stags or the cockerels are sold, the extra pullets and the eggs often go to the household pot o nourish the ever demanding nutritional requirements of the children in the family. It is said that in Iloilo, it is more profitable to raise game chickens than pigs. Yolanda had wreaked havoc on the gamefowl industry of Western Visayas while other typhoons have destroyed thousands of roosters in Luzon to the point that the demand for cocks and stags have practically doubled.

For dual purpose breeds, meaning, for eggs and meat, there are foreign breeds which were once imported by private individuals and by government but a few had remained mainly due to acclimatization problems. There also exotic breeds like the Egyptian, Kabir, Sasso and other but they suffered the same fate. Local breeds or the native chickens have endured several centuries of culture as they are part of the home or farm system. They subsist on feeds that they can forage and from table scraps thrown to them. But their basic weaknesses are that they are slow growers and become broody after only about 8 eggs laid.

Lately, there had been renewed attention of oriental chickens, particularly, the aseel or popularly called jolo. Jolo breeds are often used for naked heel fighting or locally known as “pauwak” where roosters are fought for one hour 30 minutes and those that are still standing up and pecking, win. However, the merits of the jolo breed goes beyond its prowess to withstand beating for one hour and a half. These are extra large chickens where the cocks weigh between 2 to 4 kilograms while the hens weigh from 1.5 to 2 kilograms. They are foragers and can subsist on limited and poor feed availability. Given a free range, they can scrounge around eating almost anything edible, from fresh tender nutrient rich plants, to worms and insects which are sources of proteins and amino acids for them.

They are also fast growers where at 50 to 60 days old, they can be slaughtered and would yield about 1 kilogram of meat. Their biggest asset however is their hens' capability to sit and hatch well. They are also good mothers and are fiercely protective of their brood. However, when hungry, they will also kill and eat their own hatchlings. Like native chickens however, they become broody or stop laying eggs and start to sit on their eggs when they have laid about 12 eggs.

Like all breeds, the farmer should strive to improve the jolo breed continuously. If he wants to improve it for egg laying, he can identify good layers in the flock and breed them to white leghorn males who are often passed in the streets as excess broiler chickens. White leghorns are known to lay as much as 320 eggs per year and in one spurt, they can lay up to 50 eggs before stopping for a few days then backl again. (to be continued)

Problems are Opportunities (2): Urban Gardening can be easy

Food particularly vegetables and meat had become scarce right after Typhoon Yolanda. Now that we are gradually recovering, another question cropped up: everything has become expensive. While once you can buy a slice of squash for P10.00, the smallest slice is now P20.00. A small bunch of leaf onions with 3 pcs., would now sell for P10.00, easily translating to P150 or more per kilogram of this necessary kitchen spice for Ilonggos.

Even indigenous nutritious vegetables like alugbati, tagabang, kulitis and lupo suddenly became scarce and when they reappeared, they cost like imported vegetables, leaving consumers with limited choices and getting into the habit of eating without vegetables in their diets.

But this should not be so. Even urban dwellers can have their fill of these health-giving vegetables right in the confines of their homes, albeit on a limited space. Every nook and cranny with ample sunlight can become growing areas for table essentials. One simply has to have the basic requirements for a good crop vegetables right at home.

Planting areas: the urban gardener's first hurdle is the place to plant or where to situate the planting area. Most vegetables need sunlight so the obvious place is where there is sunlight for most part of the day. So a place with at least 6 hours sunlight would offer the best location for the planting area.

Containers: Any container would do but for aesthetics, use uniform containers. For vegetables harvested within 30-60 days, a 3 to 5 liters container would be ideal. After harvest, one can simply pull out the vegetable and replace soil or at the very least add more organic fertilizers. For longer growing or frequently harvested vegetables, one can use larger vessels like the 10 liters to 20 liters pet bottles. Eggplants and tomatoes would grow best in 20 liters containers.

Soil media: Vegetables need the best soil for balanced growth which results to nutritious food. Chemically fertilized vegetables at most offer limited nutrients, mostly those that can be processed from the main or macro fertilizers like Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium and some bits of micro nutrients that results to large leaved plants but poor on nutritional value.

When organic fertilizers are used, plants grow slowly but its nutrition is complete, it would also offer large amounts of nutrients to the eater because of the complete nutrient profile it contains. This had been substantiated by many researches from past to present.

One basic mix that I often do is the 1:1 mix of organic matter and garden soil. If coconut husks are available, I chop them up and add them as the added 1:1:1 mix which makes the soil in the pot last longer and has much less compaction resulting to lesser frequency of soil replacement. With frequent watering with a weak solution of liquid fertilizers, the pot can hold several planting of vegetables.

To make one's own organic matter or fertilizer, one need not look far. He can start with organic kitchen waste and some other materials that can be composted like waste paper, cartons and similar materials, The easiest and fastest way to decompose organic matter would be to use the ubiquitous garbage bag, the black one since black absorbs the sun's heat better. Gather all the bio-degradable waste, wet with a solution of probiotics or the Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO) concentrate at the rate of 1 glass per 1 liters and water the waste matter. Seal tightly for two to three weeks and when you open it, it will smell a bit sweetish but the entire batch should already be black and decomposed. You can now expose this to open air so that the aerobic bacteria and fungus can now work on them for total decomposition. By the second month, it should be ready for use. By decomposing the biodegradable wastes that we generate, we accomplish two major triumphs: helping out the city government's waste disposal problem and make nutrient rich fertilizer at the same time.

One can also make his own foliar and liquid fertilizer from kitchen waste. Save the rice, fish and meat washings in a large pail. Measure a proportion of 2:1 of fish or meat washings to rice washings. The rice washing is good food for the lactobacilli which also feeds on the complex protein of the fish/meat washings to modify them into simple amino acids which also become nitrates that can be absorbed and utilized by the plants. One can add IMO to give more food for the bacteria for faster decomposition. Fish solutions are good sources of nitrogen to accelerate the growth of potted vegetables. To use, dissolve about a cup of the fish solution in 2-3 liters of water and water every week at the rate of 2-3 cups of the weak solution.

The use of earthworm manure or casting, popularly called vermi-cast as organic fertilizer is also recommended. One can get his seed stocks of the African Night Crawlers from any known source and start on a small area or even in pails. One feeds earthworms with semi decomposing vegetables and weed trimmings. They are relatively easy to grow but one has to watch for ants and pests that attack earthworms.

Vegetables to grow: Where there is an area where roots can penetrate deep into the soil, one can establish one or two malunggay (moringa) trees for a constant supply of fresh leaves. For potted vegetables, one rule of thumb that I discovered is that generally, one liter of rich soil can supply the requirements of vegetables for a month. So for lettuce, pechay and similar vegetables, a 1.5 liter pet bottle of cola is enough to produce a rich harvest within 30-40 days from planting. As soon as they are harvested, change the soil and plant another crop of these sub-tropical vegetables.

Kangkong, alugbati and kamote should be given a large container since they grow fast but exhaust soil nutrients fast. Alugbati is the heaviest consumer of soil nutrients. They are not good for container gardening unless you regularly water them and provide frequent fertilization either directly to the soil or through liquid application. Kangkong and camote leaves can be harvested every 7-10 days as they grow fast when right after harvest, they are dosed with liquid fertilizers. They can be productive for as long as six months before they are again repotted.

Eggplants and tomatoes are good pot-grown vegetables provided they are planted in a large pot, like 20-30 liters capacity. The used cement bag is good enough to grow an eggplant for as long as 6 months. They would fruit well especially when they are regularly fertilized. We had some eggplants that bore up to eight fruits simultaneously on a cement bag and was regularly fertilized with liquid manure tea.

Onions and chives which are grown for their leaves are among the popular vegetables to grow in small containers and pots. We usually grow them in 5x8 plastic bags or ½ the 1.5 liters pet bottles and in 60 days or so, we harvest 5-7 pcs per bottle or pot. We also regularly water them with a weak solution of manure tea or fish solution which hastens their growth and gets them to branch faster.

Yes, urban gardening is easy and one can get both physical and emotional satisfaction from growing one's food.