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| November 2011 |
In August, I attended the "Power of Pen 3", a food writing seminar. Had the opportunity to seat and chat with Nana Ozaeta, the editor of FOOD Magazine. We discussed about organic farms as she learned I was writing for Agriculture Magazine.
She said that for a long time, she was wanting for someone to write about the organic area. It was offered to someone in the past but seems she was too busy.
Nana knows my writing ability is very elementary...but as she said in her talk during POP3..."the editor is a writer's bestfriend as they make the writer always look good".
Thank you for trusting!
Am glad to be able to boost the marketing for us farmers, at the same time walking for consumer awareness :)
Good day po.
ReplyDeleteI've read in your blog before http://solraya.blogspot.com/ about raising boiler chicken in a free range environment in lieu of the sunshine / sasso / colored chicken.
Lately, I came across this post (which really bothered my plan of raising broiler chicken in a free range environment for a longer period than intended):
"about free-ranging the white industrial broilers, it has been done before and i should say it is doable but you could not get the same results quality-wise compared to using the colored broilers for free-range production.
first, industrial white broilers, as their name implies, has been selectively bred for intensive commercial production. their instinct is to eat and eat and they do not have a strong foraging ability because it has been bred out of them.
second, they have been selectively bred to be very efficient in feed conversion. they almost convert a kilo of feeds to a kilo of meat in the shortest possible time. this will work against us trying to get a meat similar to our native chicken because we there is a reason why we grow free-range chickens for a minimum of 56 days. that 56 days will give them ample amount of time for them to assimilate the flavors they have eaten in the ranging area in their meat. shortening the ranging time will make you end up with a meat that is the same with their confined brothers and sisters. the long ranging time is the reason why native chicken meat taste the way they do. if you grow white industrial broilers up to 56 days, you will end up with a 3.5kg chicken, something that big is harder to sell. controlling their growth will stress the birds as they have been designed to eat. it is like trying to limit the food a sumo wrestler can eat.
third, colored free-range chickens have been specifically bred to be slow growing and more importantly, retained their hardiness to withstand being exposed to the environment and not succumb easily to diseases. there are more reasons why colored free-range chickens should be used for free-range production but the ones i stated are the more important reasons :)"
May I ask for your comment about the above? Is there any way to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above?
I'm an OFW and will be going home next month to start my free range chicken project using broiler chicken in the Mindanao and to date I haven't found a local supplier of the colored chicken in our area.
Thanks a lot for sharing your ideas to us.
ejb, The foraging characteristic has not been bred out. You will not see the foraging if it is confined. Yes it converts what it eats fast. So, we control feeding of grains to once a day so they will not grow fast and allow us to harvest in about 80days.
ReplyDeletegud pm po napanuod kopo yung vedio tungkol sa azolla, interisado po akong malaman kung papano magparami nito ang pangalawa kung saan ako puweding makakuha ng punla nito? susubukan ko kasing magtanim sa aking itinatayong farm sa samar! maari po akong makabili sainyo ng pananim nito? maraming salamat po.
ReplyDeletealfonso, I can give you if you can get from Manila. Or let me find someone on your area who has :)
ReplyDeleteGood day po saan po ba nkakabili ng organic chicken nyo? Im from dau pampanga?
ReplyDeleteKelan po kayo mg conduct ng seminar bout free range chicken gusto ko po e try sa maliit kung lupa sa nueva ecija. Tnx po...