Oh! TS=Thread Starter=Paraoptical
Just figured it out

The farm im managing is located in Sejingkat, Kuching, Sarawak.

The tech used are from Australia, a tech provider called 'Fish Protech', google it and youll find out a lot about it

Para, i heard that you yourself have experience in rearing Soon Hock, how did you manage its juvenile stage? My new batch will be around 2-3inches, how long do you think theyll grow to marketable size? whats their FCR with the feed you are giving them? what did you feed them with anyway? We at the farm are currently using feed pallets for fry till marketable size. Will they strive best without or with organics feed such as mealworms/bloodworms/small fishes/small prawns? Whats the feed proportion u give for each fry/fish?

Thanks bro Rexis . Yes, jab ikan hiasan guy also telling me.

cheers,

Greetings to all the Si Fu out there nice to meet you all. I’m from the design world and very interested in doing wormy business, but don’t know where to start and where to look for buyers haha any suggestion?

np, Mazda626

Darkus, from the info I hv here(this is what I remember, i left the article at home):

Soon hock is carnivorous fish and they seldom swim around and not very fierce unless prey gets near them, they prefer to stay idle in cracks or bottom of the water. They can grow up to 60cm at 5-6kg.

Fry at 5 cm long should be fed with redworm and minced fish meal, this is to make them slowly adapt to artificial fish feed. Slowly apply sink type fish feed and monitor the feeding condition.

Survival rate can be expected to be around 80%.

Soon hock took about 1 year to reach marketable size ie 600gm. From other sources it mentioned that for best quality keep on feeding the soonhock for 2 years so they will have time to develop their tenderness sth like tat...

The article also mentioned about feeding method on other size soon hock and how many months to go into next stage, but since 5cm is roughly the size of the fish u get, heres the first hand info. If i hv time I will edit my post.

- - -

auchenmiao, what worm are you intended to breed? And what do you know and from where you heard about worm? Just trying to get an idea where to start.

Anyway, I believe this thread had covered several issues about virmiculture. Look for it.

This post has been edited by rexis: Jul 15 2008, 10:45 AM

umm hey, any one know how to rear prawns? anyone giving out any classes? i need a starting point

Appreciatte that info bro Rexis, been reading some of the old posts, i think im gona keep up my soonhock updates here in the forum by providing info and pics as soon as i receive them. Our fry suppliers from Singapore is actually planning to let us grow the fish for them and then buy em all out at an ex-farm price. From what ive heard theyre getting the fry at around 0.40SD, most probly buying them back at 30.00SD/Kg. Although only if the farm succeed in growing them till marketable size. How are the prices of this fish nowadays?

Anyway, how much of bloodworms/fishmeals are we talking about for each fry?

Just to share something here after "R & D".

.............."30 years ago village folks discovered arowana (Msian Golden & Blood Red) in Kuala Selangor, however due to rapid development and factory build-up at the surrounding area without scientific explaination - the species simply disappeared leaving Johor & Perak the most productive soil in captive breeding arowana biz till todate"........

heh, they are not simply "disappeared", people would not let such living gold bars swimming freely unattended.

Its a sad thing thou that wild Arowana has lost their natural habitat forever.

This post has been edited by rexis: Jul 18 2008, 03:37 PM

Infor gathered during 'R&D' visits to various area in Selangor.

Based on Prikanan, Putrajaya - there are no suitable soil in Selangor. pH might be okay but not "TDS" ; by definition -Total dissolved solids (often abbreviated TDS) is an expression for the combined content of all inorganic and organic substances contained in a liquid which are present in a molecular, ionized or micro-granular (colloidal sol) suspended form.

In arowana breeding biz TDS simply critical in many places. UNLESS someone outthere found it in Selangor soil quitely. Therefore, Perak & Johor simply popular choice for Kelisa earthpond type. Hulu Langat once simply potential but 1 registered company 7 years ago bungkus because waited 6 years (with broodstock age above 5 years) fails to produced any. Infact water pH testing comprises 3 layer to be exact ; surface, mid & bottom of the pond.

Sifus or anyone please correct me ya, if my 'r&d' facts are wrong.

any1 doing poultry farming ah? chickens, ducks or goats?

what is the market price for a free range chicken or ayam kampung now?

Market price? Easy, just visit the pasar pagi for the chicken stall, and then get a hint my calculating their difference with farm chicken in term of percentage. Then you will get an idea how much more you can get with kampong gai.

---

Added on August 8, 2008, 8:36 amFor whoever interested in agriculture business, please do pay a visit to MAHA 2008

Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang
11th-13th Aug 2008
10am-7pm

Refer official site for details.

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 8 2008, 08:36 AM

why no one update this thread 1?

I just bought half acre of land here in sabah, will build my house there, and use the remaining land for agriculture and aquaculture business. might increase to 1 acre of land (buying the next half acre land).

I plan to do ayam kampung, jambu batu and tilapia farming, integrated system.

any sifu can give advice? totally newbie here. thanks!

How much did you bought the 1/2 acre of land for?

45k!

in Ranau somemore.

It depends, how is the road access, land condition, and the surrounding. 45k for a ranau land with cool weather, still ok i guess.

Here are the suggestions:
- At your own land, build some permenant structure like chicken hatchery, goat barn, mushroom hut, etc. Or if you prefered, dig some pond.
- At your own land, plant long term fruit trees like durian, rambutan, mangosteen, langsat, or if you prefered, jambu batu. Take note not to plant large tree too near your buildings like house, their root systems will damage flooring over years. Plant it at least 10m away. Small shrubs like jambu doesn't matter much thou.
- At your nearby land, they are not yours, but if they are vacant, you can plan to work out some vegetable farms there! Or use it as nursery for seedlings. Or anything temporary and can be easily moved away.

IMHO, 1/2 acre of land is not big enough for any commercial fruit tree farming, ie, do not meet scale of economy. Perhaps a high density chicken factory can produce a meaningful production to yield profit.

If you are not planning any serious income for your farm too soon. You can try to learn organic farming. It is a time consuming job. Plus, you have to look at the history of your land for organic farming, was it a farm or a natural forest before? Or was it just a vacant land? This is very important to understand how good the local ecosystem can sustain an organic farm.

The ideal should be some free range chicken under jambu batu trees, they help you out in weeding and manuring, while your jambu batu producing some nice organic fruits. Or you can think about a duck pond with jambu batu trees beside.

Then this will be more like a leisure personal garden which occasionally yield some side income.

If your aim is to get income or profit as soon as possible, then beside everything mentioned above, you utilize all the available land nearby for short term vegetable cropping, there is always demand for vegetable even thou you are bond to the low market price of vege crops. Short term fruits are recommended too like melons, etc.

Since your house is just next to it, there is a galaxy of activities you can do.

Anything particular in your mind before I start shooting into void?

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 22 2008, 10:30 AM

thanks rexis for the insight!

the land is very well accessible, flat land. it had been vacant for about 8 years, just finished clearing the land, waiting for suitable time to burn the branches and grass. just behind of the land is a paddy field so water supply is available too.

luckily the previous owner had already digged 3 fish ponds about the size of roughly 10 x 7 each at the very back of the land, so i can rear some fish there. since i want to rear chicken as well, i will build the chicken pens above the ponds so the manure will drop to feed the fish. yeah i plan to rear a mixture of broiler chickens and ayam kampung, they will roam free and fertilize my jambu trees. i don't like the idea of high density chicken factory because it's cruel and there are already lots of competitors out there. i am targeting the niche market for organic free range chickens.

about the plants i am still not very sure whether to plant jambu or anything else, that's my dad's idea as he said there is a growing demand for it and it can be harvested all year round.

so in conclusion, you can see my plan is,
1)chicken
2)fish
3)jambu
integrated system so they help each other to grow.

my concern is how much i can do, like how many fish and chickens i can rear, and how many trees i can plant. i am trying to buy the next plot of land to increase the size so i can do more, but the price is so expensive, i ask yesterday and the owner say 60k for the same size of land that i bought just next to it!

chicken would be my main income since i can sell higher than the price of normal factory chickens.

is tilapia a good choice? or a mixture of tilapia and keli, from this thread i heard some say soon hock and arowana but totally no idea how.

so what do you think? if i back to kk next year may be we can meet.

You are not in KK? When do you plan to move back? That is so nice to move back i want to go back tooo...

Looking forward to visit your happy chicken!

Here is some density guide for kampung chicken:

For indoor intensive chicken pen:
- all chicken house indoor in a closed system for easy management.
- 12 chicken per m²
- Food and water is provided all day

For semi intensive chicken pen:
- other then the indoor pen, the is a fenced area for the chicken to move around for some sunlight and fresh air.
- chicken will return to sleep in pen at night.
- in pen 18 chicken per m²
- Food and water is provided all day

For free range chicken:
- the lowest density of all plan and the happiest chicken of all.
- 10,000 chicken per ha, which translate into about 4,000 chicken per acre of 2,000 chicken per half acre.
- chicken will return to sleep in pen at night.
- in pen 18 chicken per m²
- Food and water is provided all day in the pen

You should get ready your supplier of choice for starter, grower, and finisher.

Oh yes, since you mentioned the place has ponds and has been idle for 8 years, I guess you should do some preventive measure just in case some anaconda gulps all your chicks! My father has told me stories about how they trap anacondas back there, a big steel barrel buried in ground with the top part open and same level with the ground, bait like chicken or as my father mentioned "fat meat" is placed at the bottom of the barrel. Snakes will be unable to climb up the smooth wall if they are full. Take note that anacondas are protected species in Malaysia.

For fish, I think for the small area you have, there is not practical to raise cheap fish like talapia, unless talapia fetch higher price in Sabah. You can consdier higher value fish like haluan.

If you have the cash, why not just get the other half acre of the land? Consider take loan or something. I am very very much sure that when you fully work out your current farm nicely there, your neighbour will hike the land price 100% to 120k. When you are not utilizing the land yet, build a barn and keep a few goats and let them roam the idle area for natural food, you won't need to pay too much attension to them, just some barn cleaning, and for that extra bit of organic fertilizer!

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 25 2008, 08:58 AM

anyone can tell me where can i buy the today agriculture magazine?

You can usually buy it in chinese magazine shop, but not Popular.

Theres a grocery shop in Sec 17 has it, its among the shops where many people have lunch there, Sg Long has it, it is a stationary shop, the magazine lorry at Sg Long also has it.

Hi there, long time no reply here, I had started to rare tigerworm since last month. And i think the worm quite healthy there.Anyone interested can tell me, i will show you the pics..HEHE