is this executive diploma programme still on?

what has happened to this agrobussiness ? If possible, please update us the necessary information.

thanks!

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

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!=)

I can't agree more on the BOLD statement. But i realised that with the rapidly growing demand of poultry production & processing in our country, more and more efforts have been implemented and carried out by gov to meet this increasingly higher demand.

The whole industry i have been exposed to while on my intern, even the food processing aspects.I realized that GMP, HACCP, ISO 9001, are all important safety guidelines which food industry need to abide to. ISO Auditor Certification? do you mind to explain more? I think food industry company will sponsor the workers especially from QA/QC dept to undergo the training and obtain the certs right?

A few effort which i see is the current efforts by UPM researcher,from faculty of agriculture and animal sciences which recently come out with an idea of lactic acid fermented feed which could be used in animal feed.

We have know that the use of antibiotics in animal feed, causes development of resistance in a number of pathogenic
bacterial in the exposed animals. Furthermore, they have indirect adverse side effects with implications for human health. Thus a new alternative need to be penned down in order to produce a high quality and of minimal health effects due to the use of antibiotics in poultry diets.

Lactic acid fermented feeds are often suggested as alternatives to the use of antibiotic growth promoters.
It has made up a significant portion of poultry diet and nutrition. Fermented feed is characterized by high numbers of lactic acid bacteria, high number of yeast, a low pH and high concentration of lactic acid.

A good study by UPM here: http://www.pjbs.org/pjnonline/fin126.pdf