MrFarmer,
Haha over in the east eh? I'm at Peninsular. Maybe only if I go there for a holiday. Seems like your visitor is having fun.

you made it sound very far? Our globe is not that large after all. It's only 2 1/2 hour's flight from Sepang. My friend is from Klang. I reside in KL.

Sabah is a nice place to visit. Blessed with natural environment, plenty sea food. Lots of surrounding island, mountains and there is two
"lost valley" Danum Valley and Maliau Basin Lots of farming opportunities too.

Mr Farmer,

which airline do you take to get to Keningau from KL ?

thanks

LOL! Yes, it's indeed not so far in the sense of flight time but it will cost me a few working days. I will see when I'm free and hope to be able to visit there soon. Yes, seafood is great.

You can fly in from Sepang with either AirAsia or FireFly to Kota Kinabalu (~2.5hrs). After that by land transport to Keningau (~3 hrs).

guys... lets say my company have got a palm plantation er... what side business can i do in the plantation er? wont kacau the plantation but use their land....

rear cattle and ayam ar?

It would intefere, more or less, with the plantation.

Assuming that the plantation allows you to use the land freely, you could do intercrop of banana, especially in immature areas. Just make sure you replace the nutrient input taken up by the banana plants, so the palms are not affected. Banana retail price per kg for Berangan is about RM2.80 in some places (Grade A), and RM2.50 for most (Grade B). Standard production is about 15kg combs per bunch (RM37.50), with intercropping densities of about 600 plants per ha in oil palm area (RM22,000/ha).

If you want something more mobile, try cattle ranching. Although I am very much against this, and many agriculturists share similar views, I do know that Kulim has been doing quite alright in this. Just to share generally, their cost of ranching (i.e. free-ranging, with supplementary feedings, disease management, slaughtering etc.) is about RM5 per kg carcass, or around RM1,500 per head. But bear in mind, this does not include the cost of buying the calves. If you can find an ok breeder, you might be able to get calves at about RM1,000 per head, and profit about RM500 per head. Retail price is about RM3,000 per 300kg carcass.

But again, and I believe I've mentioned this before, marketing and market access remains to be a serious problem, whatever produce it may be. Local beef have to reach areas with large meat demand, and low competition from cheap imported beef or kerbau meat, while banana have very short shelf life, maximum 7 days while green and kept chilled, and less than 5 days after forced ripening.

Hi Michael, was passing by a palm oil plantation the other day and saw a group of foreign labors clearing the Berangan (for good) and went up to chat with them. Asked them why are they clearing and throwing away the Berangan and was told that their boss instructed them to clear as the Berangan is "poisoning the roots of the palm". I just could not comprehend what them meant.

Talked to a University Pertanian lecturer during the MAHA 2010, he said it's a good idea to inter-crop bananas with rubber trees too and can most probably do it to 3 1/2 years. according to him, the fruits shall eventually be too small to market due to the lack of sun light.

Off topic, the tissue cultured Berangan that bought is growing at a very slow rate compared to the "local" shoots (Berangan, Emas and the type used for Goreng Pisang) that we dug up to propagate.

Also I'm wondering if it's a good idea to collect the above mentioned discarded "Poisonous" Berangan and plant it at my farm?

Basically if you are interested to have a farm and further down the road,you think it is a great opportunity to comercialised the chickens that you rear to for their eggs or to further processed into food, getting to supply to food chain, resturants or wet markets etc, i guess this is a great opportunity.

Today, i got the chance to have a visit to one of the integrated company for poultry breeding to further processing. let me share what i have gained from visiting the farm. The farm located at a very remoted area. I noticed at the entrance there are wheel drip column specially for lorry to dip the tyres and be sprayed with the disinfectant sprayer fixed around the wall before entering the farm.This is to avoid any contamination and ensure good sanitary. There are 5 workers and when I reached there, there are 2 indonesian workers in charge of the farm. They have their own wooden house to stay as they need to take care of the birds 24 days 7 weeks. The farm manager is a Chinese guy who rent the facilities and land for breeder group to grow broilers there. There are 7-8 brooders( a heated house for chick) for growing the birds, each brooder can have the capacity to accommodate up to 17000 birds.

The wood shaving are scattered on a floor layer for the small birds to move around. According to the vets, the use of wood shaving has its purposes. It protects the small birds (Grower) from falling down from the brooder. When the birds start to grow for a certain size, the layer of wood shaving will be rolled up because the birds are able to walk stably on the brooder. Besides serving the purpose of protection, the wood shaving also absorb moisture and provide heat to the birds. There are drinkers and feeder inside the coop which are to provide water and feed to the birds. Sometimes the drinkers might be unbalanced and contains not enough water, so the workers need to take note and correct the mistakes whenever possible. the vets said the feeder need to be full of feeds as birds sometimes can have a different eating habit, and thus the feed need to be filled fully to ensure the birds obtain enough nutrients for their growing pattern. Besides , the brooder also equipped with heater( using infrared ray ) to provide heat to the birds. it is usually switched on at night. When the birds grow to 1.5-1.7kg only will the birds be sent to be slaughtered and further processed in Food industries.

It will take half year for a hen to mature and 67th week old to continuously producing eggs . The capability for a hen to produce eggs range from 175-180 eggs per life span.
Integrated companies have the whole operation of producing chicken to further processing the meat based food . So basically there are Livestock, Breeder, Food Industries which all cater for the bussiness need of an integrated company.

To make it simple, there are basically divided into three categories:
a) Broiler- The tasks is to grow the broilers for further processed food purposes. The broilers are usually be given unlimited nutrients and allow for quicker grow.
b) Layer- This category has its sole purpose, that is to grow the broiler which meant for only laying eggs. Cocks and hens are not allowed to mate, thus hens will yield unfertilised eggs.
c) Breeder – to breed the birds , allowing the mating between cocks and hens. Fertilisation occurs and eggs hatched to produce chicks.


Welcome any feedbacks. I wish to learn more on this too=)

This post has been edited by OMG!: Jul 15 2011, 09:39 PM

MrFarmer:

The plantation should be in Sabah, if I'm not mistaken, right? I believe what the owners are referring to are nematodes. Banana corms are known to harbour root nematodes, a kind of small worm-like parasite that feeds on the roots of plants, and tends to act as a vector for various root-borne diseases. However, this usually happens when proper sanitation during planting of banana corms isn't practiced, i.e. disinfection of corm/suckers via nematicide immersion or hot water treatment. Also, although maybe to a lesser extent, fusarium oxysporium and phytophtora transmission via infected soil surrounding the banana corm could result in death of young palms.

The UPM lecturer is quite right. Sunlight is important for banana cultivation, but generally as long as 70% light penetration is available, the plants could still grow well and bear good fruits. As the canopy of the main crops begin to interlock to block out sunlight, understandably, productivity of banana would also drop. That's why in 10-year old coconut estates, intercropping with banana is a viable option, as the light penetration from the side is high enough for banana photosynthesis, whereas in oil palm, you'd probably need to wait till 20 years before gaining similar light penetrations. Other reasons lies with nutrient competition, and genetics. Maturing rubber/oil palm/cocoa trees will eventually take up more nutrients, and given their more extensive root system, would out-compete the banana's more localized root system for nutrients.

About the TC banana plantlet vs natural suckers, this is indeed interesting to note the difference in growth time. Although contentious, and could probably raise furore amongst TC labs, I have to comment that growing from suckers actually can result in faster growth. This is based on the experience, and experiments that were conducted while I was still with the plantation industry. However, one thing that growing bananas from suckers trail behind TC plantlets, is uniformity. This, along with freedom from diseases, is in fact really the main selling point of TC plantlets. When planting huge hectarages of bananas, the only way to reduce cost during harvesting, is for about 80% of the crop maturing and ripening at around the same time, which happens when the field is planted with TC banana plantlets. This way, you wouldn't need to have harvesters coming into the plantations frequently, and can harvest large quantities at the same time. Also, because of the larger scale of harvest, transportation costs will necessarily become lower as it is distributed over a greater unit number, while reducing frequency of transport.

DON'T TAKE THOSE DISCARDED SUCKERS. Please, be wary. Once the pathogens or pest get into your soil, that's the end of story for your farm. Very few crops are tolerant or resistant to those pathogens (fusarium, phytophtora, root nematodes), and the cost of cleaning up the mess is huge. A case in point is Panama disease that wiped out massive tracts (>90%) of banana plantings in Johore, caused by fusarium. Or the phytophtora shoot rot that kills 85% of oil palm in Latin America. Most of these cases are a result of transporting and planting disease ridden materials, including soil particles and dead plant materials, into healthy areas.

Do practice GAP. Note what our friend OMG highlighted about the chicken farm. There's some very good examples of GAP.

hi people,

need your help in identifying the deficiency of my corn...thank you

Sole Distributor of World Eco Products? do you have gluten free flour ?

Hi ParaOptical,
I have with me "Buku Panduan-Simptom kekurangan nutrien bagi tanaman" by Jabatan Pertanian, reprint 2006. It's in the National language, Adobe file 8,681 KB. It says that make sure it's not disease or insects before diagnostic. PM me if you required the Buku Panduan. I find it complicated to understand.

Hi MrFarmer,

thank you for your help. will PM you for the file.

Just found out from Joel that its called anthracnose leaf blight

i checked it out with the picture and it is quite similar with the one i researched online.

thanks Joel

Something to share about fish farming:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,...2081796,00.html

I believe fish farming is way to go.

rockdamn:

Good article. But would just like to highlight some things more relevant to Malaysia.

The organization I represent has been trying to attract FDIs into Malaysia aquaculture for years (aside from other biotech investments), and most companies engaged are hessitant. Apart from feed costs, the other key turn-off factor is the lack of cold-chain logistics. Unlike our neighbours in Thailand and Vietnam, Malaysia does not have a system of production, or even regulations that conforms to EU/US standards. For instance, the EU regulation requires that all harvested fish be gutted, UV treated, packaged, and frozen within 6 hours. How many producers in Malaysia actually practice that? Heck, we don't even have a national guideline for this either!

I had the opportunity to see for myself how the Vietnamese do aquaculture, and I can say, Malaysia is easily 10 years behind them, despite starting earlier than them, and have better access to technology and funds. Till today, we are still arguing about which species of fish to focus on, while neglecting the other more important issues. We are also so low on the productivity scale, we might as well go plant coconuts (often called the "lazy-man's crop" due to it little need for management). Let me just give some examples:

(i) In Vietnam, they can produce 1.35 million tons of basa/tra/sutchii on 6,000ha of land (ave: 225,000kg/ha); Malaysia's entire aquaculture production on 50,000ha land produced about 7.1 million tons last year (142,000kg/ha)

(ii) When WWF and some NGOs started claiming that Vietnamese aquaculture was not sustainable and unable to meet EU standards of food safety, the Vietnamese government and Aquaculture Producers Association immediately went to work to address the problem and change public perception. 90% of the farms were certified within 1 year, for both sustainability and EU food safety standard.

Of course, that does not mean Malaysia aquaculture is doomed. There are some examples of success, such as Trapia and some integrated patin farms up north and on the east coast. Then there's also Fish Protech in Sepang, an indoor aquaculture system farming jade perch.

I believe Malaysia can be a good destination for high-valued fish products. One such fish is in fact the jade perch. It is comparable to the sea perch (siakap) in versatility and toughness, and has good feed conversion ratio, despite being a purely fresh water fish. The only exception is that it has a very high retail price tag at present, about RM35 per kg. However, in order to make this work, the entire value chain has to be built, meaning an integrated approach has to employed. And this, sadly, has to come solely from the producers themselves. Yes, it will mean very high investments, but if done properly, the returns are equally good.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Jul 27 2011, 09:44 AM

Thank you for the highlight. I am currenty looking in aquaculture business and at this stage to start up small and profitable is difficult. I realised malaysia infrastuctures and regulations both are limited especially if you are not bumi.

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Added on July 27, 2011, 10:29 amDear Para,

Do you mind to share what had ended up on your fish farm? I have read from the first page but didnt have any update after 3 months or any post i had missed out?



This post has been edited by rockdaman: Jul 27 2011, 10:29 AM

rockdamn:

Irregardless, the lack of infrastructure and regulations affect all who are in this industry.

I do have a suggestion, although it might be a little more "riskier" than usual. Try hobby-scale production. If you have the space, build a cement fish pond with the usual fittings. Or get one of those fibreglass tanks (about RM1,000 a piece I believe). Rear a couple dozen of your targeted fish, but ratio out as though you are on commercial production. Keep a cost-log book. And when it come to it, sell to your local restaurant, either at cost, or with a small profit. Don't quit your day job.

This was done by some of the more enterprising retirees in Sepang, where my family home is. One uncle in particular not only reared fish like red tilapia, siakap and jade perch in fibreglass tanks, but he also reared mud crabs and flower crabs, all which were sold to the local seafood restaurants or the many tourists who would come shopping for fresh seafood at Golden Palm Beach. His profit isn't a huge, but enough to make his retirement a comfortable one.

Okay, guys , i have seen the posts in this thread, and realise that there are indeed a few forummers who are experienced enough in the knowledge of plantation, farming and rearing, be it chicken, fruits, feeds or fishes. Among the few which i noted is Micheal J, Para Optical & Mr Farmer.

I am currently a university student who is interested to go for plantation, rearing or farming sectors upon completion of my study. I love to utilize my knowledge in sciences, particulary biology, chemistry, maths to practise in this field. In other words, we call this as a knowledge commercialisation in the industry to make it profitable and productive.

So, currently while in the midst of completing my final year degree, i would like to know more on the master programme which offers this kind of course, i realise there are not too popular and not too many offered in Malaysia, particulary on poultry nutrition. I have been worked in this poultry industry for my intern and i realised that i have developed a great interest in this area. I believe it is a rapidly growing industry in Msia seeing the fact the demand of chicken is highly elevated.

Thus, would any of you experienced seniors shed some light here? I know before furthering master, you need to step into the farm, and know very well the industry yourself, i have been to this industry for a few months and i realised that indeed i have lots to learn more. so i would like to know any good prospects of furthering master degree in poultry fields? The route to further and some constructive comments=)
any output is much appreciated!=)

OMG:

I don't want to comment too much on the quality of public university courses. And honestly, very few universities in Malaysia do offer something that is industry-specific.

I will however, comment on the poultry industry in Malaysia. I believe you should have known from your internship that the poultry industry in Malaysia is highly regulated. Producers cannot simply sell at any price they want (despite the price ceiling being relaxed), while costs are going up almost every week (feed, utilities etc.). Many producers are actually losing money selling fresh poultry, and the only reason they stay afloat is because of the other supporting aspects, eg. egg production, processed meat products (sausages, nuggets etc), fertilizer etc. These side businesses are very lucrative, and is the real reason for industrial poultry producers entering the business.

Hence, my comments is that if you want to get involved, get involved in the downstream part, i.e. the food processing aspect. For this, you may not need a Masters degree, but an ISO Auditor certification might come in pretty handy.

If you still insist on getting involved with upstream activities, then get involved with feed production and animal disease control. See how you can work on developing prebiotics or probiotics, and their related technologies; use of antibiotics will soon be banned in the EU/US, and likewise the sale of any animal product tainted with antibiotics. China might not follow, but you never know. Also, you might like to look into how to develop efficient feed meals, to reduce the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) in poultry. Right now, the best feed I know about has an FCR of 1.5:1, so anything around 1.2:1 would be highly impactful.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Jul 27 2011, 12:25 PM