CATTLE RAISING GUIDE

Beef is one of the protein we eat to give the body the necessary support to stay healthy. Although meat consumption is urgently needed by us but it has limitation based the frequency only enough to keep the system going. There are many beef meat products in the market. Too much consumption will elevate the dangerous cholesterol level.

A good beef meat has more lean than fat meat. One problem faced by cattle raisers in a big scale operation is the supply of feeds. For small cattle raisers, they can’t afford to depend on commercial feeds. What they did is to improve pastures in their lands to have a healthy grasses and legumes as the source of forage they can afford. For fattening purpose, the cattle needs enough nutrients to fatten. A balance diet is important to be able for the cattle to gain weight.

As small scale raisers, what you can do to make your cattle competitive to market.

-Look for an ideal location where to raise your cattle. There should be favorable climate. The location should have sufficient source of cheap feeds. The area should not be too far from the market in order to minimize cost in transporting cattle to slaughter house.

-Unfavorable climatic condition will result to heat stress and it will affect their feed intake that will affect the fattening operation as you can’t reach the desired weight of the cattle to be profitable. Weight loss will affect the quality of the meat.

-A cattle placed in cool environment will increase their food consumption during the day. It is favorable for the raisers to have their cattle to gain weight.

-Even small investor in cattle rising needs sufficient capital for additional commercial feeds aside from the regular intake of grasses and legumes.

-The raiser should have full knowledge on how to effectively raise cattle. He should have enough understanding on how to do the proper nutrition, control of disease, select the right species of cattle, enough feeding ground and alternative feed processing.

-The cattle raisers should have establish marketing outlets to them protect against price fluctuation and manipulation that will be a disaster to cattle raisers.

-Lean meats demands high price in the market. Good fattening process is important to maintain profitability. Look for dealers of cattle fattener that can guarantee you with lower price especially if you are regular buyers to them.

-In selecting cattle variety, look for healthy cattle to serves as your stockings that has good body formation, healthy and has enough vigor. Never buy sickly stocks as it is costly for you to procure enough feeds for his recovery.

-See to it that cattle should be given commercial feeds that contain vitamins and minerals, protein and energy booster. This is to produce more meat, less bones and give less fat content. A low quality meat from the cattle that are bony, narrow body frame and thick skin will not demand better price in the market.

-To give you enough time to fatten the stocks, buy yearling above 2 years to produce better, meaty and leaner quality of meat. If you thoroughly know how to fatten cattle, you will shorten your fattening activity, cutting your expenses in raising them.

-Prepare dry area where the cattle can be down and take rest for a while.

-Be sure to give the cattle with fresher feed in clean bunkhouse. Feeds cattle regularly. Clean water should be available.

-Regulate the contents of the bunk only up to their desired appetite. Excess feed in the feeding trough will become stale wasting portion of the costly feeds instead of saving it.

-As the cattle has delicate digestive system. Make a gradual rotation of feeds from roughage to concentrate feeds.

-Check the condition of the cattle. If there is visible sign of parasite infestation then use de-worming tablet for the animal to maintain its normal body weight. Too much infestation in the intestines will reduce their weight losing chances to fatten them quick.

-Maintain better feedlot condition. It should be clean to prevent the outbreak of diseases and insect habitation in the area. Better sanitation programs and disinfection process will reduce the carrier of the disease to maintain their presence in the feeding ground.

-Place your feeding trough in higher ground. It should have better waste disposal facilities to maintain cleanliness around the area. There should have better drainage system to remove obstruction of waste materials from the feeding area.

The success of the fattening process to have meatier, juicy and leaner meat will depend on your full knowledge on how to correctly handle them. Increasing weight gain will increase your profitability in selling them to market.

GROUPER RAISING GUIDE

Grouper farming is profitable if you know how to raise them. It is a meticulous project to be able to raise them properly. The fish are found in marine water living freely in their watery environment.

It is an expensive kind of fish in the market few people can afford to buy. There were only limited catch a fisherman had in his fishing days causing the price of the fish so high due to limited supply.

To remedy the shortage of supply, fishpond owners resorted to grouper farming. They constructed fishpond based on the desired size. The pond has higher dikes for the fish to be secured. The owner maintained the water level of the pond to 4 feet. The bottom of the pond was layered with sand not mud controlling the presence of organic matter that may affect the growth of the fish. They raised fingerlings in the pond that measured 3 to 6 inches. In a hectare, it can accommodate more or less 5,500 stocks. If the fingerlings are less than 3 inches in size, the pond can be stock 11,000 fish in a single farming.

In raising grouper, it has stages to observe. If the stocks are still small, they are raised in the nursery pond. Then when they become bigger, they are stock in rearing pond. The bigger one is separated in another pond away from the small size to avoid cannibalism.

They are feed with fish meal or commercial live fingerlings of other fish raised by breeder for feeding purposes.

It was recommended that the feeding rate with life fingerlings is 10 tin containers weighing 50 kilos enough to handle grouper fingerlings in a hectare pond. They are feed every 2 weeks aside from feeding with commercial fish meal or other food alternatives.

The feeding schedule is later in the afternoon at dusk or early in the morning at dawn before the early morning light where they are most active.

Most fishponds were placed near the sea. The pond is little higher to the sea in low tide. The purpose is to change the quality of water during high tide. With enough gate entrance, the water valve controls the outbound water to the sea during low tide and during the inbound water to the pond in high tide. Fouled water may affect the growth of the fish or in higher mortality rate if there is no enough oxygen in the water. But if proper care is carried out with better feeding techniques and clean water atmosphere in the pond, it gives higher survival rate.

After rearing period of six months, the fish can attain the average weight of 1 kilo.

The fishpond owners or caretakers are very observant to the condition of the raised fingerlings. They checked it daily that they are not diseased that will cause the reduction in their population. Bacterial infection to the fish is common in pond especially if care and maintenance is poor not in accordance to strict supervision and control.

If proper maintenance is done properly, better feeding techniques, quality of water and disease prevention, fish can be harvested to the size competitive in the wet market.

In harvesting the adult fish, the caretaker of the pond has to catch them using net or by drawing the water out of the pond retaining only a little to be able to harvest them. Selection process depends on the size most profitable to sell. Those that are substandard in size will remain in the pond waiting for the next batch of harvesting.

GRASS CARP CULTURE

It is profitable raising grass carp if you know the proper production of the fish. You can raised them in fresh water pond and feed them with grass. You dependence to commercial fish feeds will be reduced.

The pond also needs fertilization to allow the minute plants to grow abundantly. You can alternate the feeds by using rice bran and copra meal. The pharyngeal teeth of grass carp have the ability for cutting and grinding the grass into smaller bits.

The debris of the left-over foods in the pond enable organisms to grow like bacteria, algae, protozoa and other smallest organisms normally found in the pond. These are also the favorite foods for the fingerlings.

Maintain the cleanliness of the pond to avoid any materials that can affect the growth of the fish.

The food of the fry are small-minute plankton, an aquatic animals live in dark and stagnant water. As it grows bigger, they are feeding the sprouts and leaves of the plants.  As the fish reached the size of 10 centimeters in length, they eat only vegetation found in the ponds.

The ponds should have enough size to accommodate 12,000 fingerlings. It should have deep of 1.5 meters. In order to increase the supply of foods for the fingerlings (fry) the ponds should be applied with compost, rice bran, animal manure and inorganic fertilizer to induce the growth of water grass every 15 days.

The 12,000 fingerlings in the pond need 20 kilos of tender grass every day. It should have enough water grasses or land grasses to be able to sustain their appetite.

Raising grass carp should be given intensive care at the start of their growth until they reach the ideal size to have competitive price in the market. It is important to have adequate supply of fish foods necessary for continues feeding.

Raising carp is profitable if you have the patient and resourcefulness to raise the kind of fish that is favorites in most households for one of the palatable food on the table.

DUCK RAISING GUIDE

To start a project, you need 60 square meters pond. Find a place where water is already available and plenty. The dikes must be thicker at the base than the top to avoid erosion.

In digging the pond, the side where to drain the water should be deeper than the other side. The purpose is for easy draining. Maintain water depth of 150 centimeters or less.

Before flowing the pond with water, fertilization with chicken manure is advisable. You can use complete fertilizer in order to promote the growth of algae. Use a khaki campbell as it lays as many as 300 or more per year. The eggs were family large, thick-shelled weighing 75 grams each.

Build a duck house in one side above the water of the pond. Place 15 ducks in a pond. Provides 2 males and 13 females. Build a house of 4 square meters floor area made of bamboo slats. Build swimming pen beside the duck house 4 square meters with 6x6 feet. Use the all-purpose feed formula using soybean meals, leaf meals, copra meals, corm grits, bone meal, shell powder and salt.

You can have an alternate feeds for them, a chopped vegetables, grated coconut or crushed snails, their favorite food. Give water and feeds every morning and afternoon. When they reach 6 months, they starts laying eggs. The layers will continue producing eggs more than 3 years as long as they are manage well.

Early in the morning, the eggs will scatter in the duck house. Gather it without them nearby and clean their feeding trough. Scrap the remaining feeds and wash in the pond. As substitute, raise snails in the pond for your duck have a nutrition protein meal.