BANGUS PRODUCTION GUIDE

Bangus production is one of the many profitable business anyone can try. It is easy if you have initial knowledge and knew the trade how to raise them. For those who has not an idea yet, seek professional assistance from producers of bangus in your area so that you can be given enlightenment how to start.

You need earthen pond of 1 hectare in size. Maintain the deepness of the water to one meter. The water should be free from floating debris. It should be clean and fresh. It should not be clouded by any impurities to increase the oxygen content in the water. Fingerlings cannot survive for long if lacking the normal distribution of oxygen in the pond.

The pond should have inlet and outlet. The purpose is to remove the dirty water and replace them if needed. A pond near the river is the best place in raising bangus. You don’t have to worry about the reduction of water level in the pond because you are ready to have good source of water to be taken if the need arises. 

Considering that the level of pond is much higher than the water level in the river, you need portable generator as part of your irrigation system to haul the water up to the pond. Construct 1,000 square meters breeding pond and 1,000 square meters rearing pond to have continues supply of fingerlings. You can’t rely on buying fingerlings from nurseries at all times as it entails additional cost in your part. An estimated 15,500 fingerlings is needed to be stock in the pond.

Procure breeder fish from known hatchery. Select a pair of breeder ready for mating. You need 60 breeders, 25 males and 25 females to be able to have enough fingerlings to supply your pond if you intend to increase another hectare (additional) aside from the initial one hectare you will establish.

It is most recommended that your pond has partition, an earthen dike at the center. It should be solid and firm to serve as walkway easy for the broadcasting of feeds considering that  one hectare lot is quite large to manage. Another economical option is to place bamboo poles as catways (walkways) in the ponds erected in strategic location you believed the best area to be placed.

If the mating pairs started to breed, collect the eggs daily and transfer it to the 1,000 square meters rearing pond properly covered by fish net to prevent all kinds of predators especially birds to consume the fingerlings.

Manage your 1 hectare pond properly that contains the initial stocking of 15,500 fish for rearing. Apply better cultural method to ensure high survival rate of the fingerlings. Install paddle wheels in the pond to aerate the water for proper distribution of oxygen. Feed the fingerlings regularly using commercial fish feeds. As an experienced grower, initiate what particular preventive measures are needed to protect fingerlings from disease.

Close supervision is necessary to be ready to handle any sign of problem that may occur during the growing period of the fish. As long as you follow the right procedures of raising the fish, you can harvest in 4-5 months (normal harvest). If you intend to make the fish bigger for better competitive price in the wet market, 7 months is the best. The normal costs involved in raising a 1 hectare  pond of bangus covers the procurement of fingerlings, commercial feeds, electricity for operational use, paddle wheels, irrigation supports, labor of construction and maintenance cost until harvest time.

Your continued learning of the mechanics and methods of raising them will be your guide and insurance that the next season to raise bangus will be perfected to earn more. Don’t discourage of any failure. Business is full of success and error. It is a fact that you have to accept. Don’t give up easily instead fight for your fears and doubts. Giving up will only lose you more financially and emotionally.

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.

AMPALAYA PRODUCTION GUIDE

The popularity of ampalaya spread into many regions of the world. The discovery of being best herbal alternative for the treatment of diabetes builds strong position in the markets.

Pharmaceuticals are busy manufacturing ampalaya into powdered capsules and took control in the distribution of their manufactured products. As they were now grown commercially in large scale, the benefit was staggering. The lowly vegetable is now the phenomenal star of all seasons.

The fruits and leaves of ampalaya found to contain iron, calcium, carbohydrates and vitamin B. If regularly included in simple dish, may help to avoid insulin deficiency.

Planting ampalaya needs utmost care, effort and unlimited attention because of the easy susceptibility to nematode. If the soil is mostly deficient, the fungus will create haven in the soil destroying what has been planted there.

It is important to take the soil for analysis to determine the correct soil condition so that if deficient, necessary application of fertilizer is carried out. This will be the first step of preventive action through fertilization.

One way to correct these is to apply basal in-raw compost, animal manure and organic fertilizers in addition to application of tri-calcium phosphate fertilizer.

Select variety that is resistant to nematode infestation. Consider also variety that is short-term to mature 64 days from date of planting the seeds. Ampalaya can be harvested earlier during wet season within 62 days.

In order to increase yield of production, pre-germination of seeds found to have more benefits than direct seeding.  One seedling should be planted 1.50 meters apart in a row. The distance between rows should be 2 meters.  The purpose is to allow penetration and exposure to sunlight because of wider spacing.

Germinated seeds are more economical as it only needs one seedling per hill while in direct seeding, 2 to 3 seeds are needed because not all seeds can germinate in the soil.

Seedlings for transplanting can easily adapt to transplanting stress without affecting the regeneration of the roots.

If the seeds are pre-germinated, it shorten the waiting time compared to direct seeding that will take little more days before it emerge in the soil. It needs one night to pre-germinate the seeds by soaking it with clean water.

To allow germination, spread the seeds in damp cloth for 3 days until the seedcoat is broken. Keep the cloth moist and maintain moisture until the seeds germinate. Transfer the seedlings to prepared hills.

As the seedlings grow longer, prepare trellis made of bamboo poles every 1.5 meters. Then tie the plastic string from pole to pole to serve as climbing medium for the vines.

Prune the tips of the branch of the established seedlings to grow multiple branching and increase yield. The lower node of the branches will grow and bear fruits. It can be done by pinching the main stem inducing growth of primary or secondary laterals.

If it bears many fruits in the stem, you have to reduce it and thin out to few numbers so that the fruits can grow bigger and longer as it controls food competition.

To control pests in the plant, spray it with pesticides to remove the threat that may affect the fruiting. Another way to protect the young fruits is by using paper bags or polyethylene bags for the insects not to damage the fruits or from contamination (toxicity) from pesticide and fungicide.

As normal cultural management, spraying the plant with fungicide may help prevent nematode to infect the roots and root system.

GOURAMI PRODUCTION GUIDE

Gourami is a fish not popular in many people, maybe because it is almost a bony fish with little flesh on it. But it has taste acceptable to some especially if it is fried.   

Crossbreed gourami was much bigger and tastier compared to native breed. They are being cultured commercially. The native species were found in rivers and streams.

The cultured gourami is bigger in size and can reach over 2 kilograms. It has not been raised in many fish farms because it grow so slow not suitable for commercial production. The slower they grow the bigger the cost of raising them.

The only benefit is that it can easily adapt to any kind of environment. They can be raised even in rice field as long as there is enough water to live with. They grow in man-made pond even in tanks.

In raising gourami in pond, it should have higher dike level to protect them from getting away. A pond of 5 meters wide will do with recommended deepness to store water. It should have water source ready in case the water level of the pond reduces to the required height. It is better if the man-made pond is near the river easy to irrigate the pond if the need arises.

To aid the fish of their food requirements, the pond can be planted with floating weeds. The best plants are water lily or water hyacinth that will invite flying insects. Other insects and tiny organisms are favorite foods of the fish.

A pair of male and female gourami with the size of 160 grams is enough to be breeder in the small breeding tank. One breeder can raise many thousands of fingerling (fry). The fry are then transferred to rearing pond until they are ready for harvest if the size reaches 100 grams. The duration of rearing time is about 7 months.

Gourami fry are feed on small plants and plankton found in the water. Regularly, the fry or adults are feed with fish meal and other food residue.

In order to raise many organisms in the pond, the application of organic fertilizer (animal manure) will create activities in the pond. In addition to giving them supplemental feeding (rice bran), it can support thousands population of gourami fry until adulthood. The rate of application is 16 kilos of organic fertilizer per hectare per day for 2 months.

A one hectare pond is ideal for commercial production to be able to have better harvest in marketable size of adult gourami.

It is a must that the fry are raised separately from the breeder to avoid cannibalism of its own kind. The survival rate of the fry will depend on how the fishpond owners make the necessary control against many kinds of predators around the pond especially during the early days of their growth.