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As imported feed cost continues to rise…

Another chicken price hike looms

As the price of imported feed continues to spiral on the back of rising oil prices, another increase in the price of chicken is on the horizon according to Managing Director of Bounty Farms Ltd, Peter deGroot.

According to deGroot, sharp increases in rice prices over the past eighteen months have forced local poultry producers to resort to corn as the feed base for poultry. DeGroot said that while it had become less expensive to import corn than to use locally produced rice, corn prices too had more than doubled, “The problem has to do with the fact that with more corn now being used in the manufacture of ethanol the price continues to climb. Traditionally, we have used broken rice in the poultry industry but much of that rice is now being exported to replace corn in the manufacture of cereals. In the past broken rice was regarded as a by-product of the industry and there were hardly any markets for the product. While we were able just over a year ago to purchase broken rice at $12 per pound the current price is $45,” deGroot said.

According to deGroot while Bounty Farms had increased chicken prices just twice in the three years prior to last November, the company has already had six price increases since that time. “What is interesting is that our price increases is based purely on the cost of production. We tend not to pay attention to fluctuating market prices,” deGroot said.

Meanwhile, deGroot told Stabroek Business that Bounty Farms is part of a regional initiative driven by the Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA) to conduct trials in the cultivation of crops to support the feed needs of the local poultry sector. DeGroot disclosed that Bounty Farms will commence local trials in corn and soya bean cultivation in the intermediate savannahs beginning in October this year. He said that the company had previously been involved in a similar initiative six years ago but that low prices made the venture uneconomical at that time. “With price levels where they are today it is now more economical to embark on such a venture,” he added. He said that apart from corn and soya the experimental project was also examining the feasibility of cultivating cassava and sorghum for use as feed in the poultry industry. DeGroot told Stabroek Business that the experimental production of crops for use in the poultry industry was also taking place in other parts of the Caribbean including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica. Funding for the trials is being made available through a donor agency.

Bounty Farms is the largest poultry producer in Guyana with more than 40 contract farmers producing chicken for the company. Bounty Farms rears around 12 per cent of its chickens.

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6 Responses to “As imported feed cost continues to rise…”

Joe Coxall
on July 11th, 2008 7:05 pm

These chicken folks should try vermiculture. Take the chicken poop mix it in a large container with some dry straw and dirt, leave it for a day or two,or the concentrated ammonia will kill the worms, then introduce earthworms to the mix, keep it moist. set it up in such a way that you can harvest a batch of worms every day.

In order to collect the worms, you need to sift the soil through a mesh sifter. Bag off the soil remains which is now rich compost, sell it to farmers as additional income.

Joe.

[Reply to this]
Joe Coxall
on July 11th, 2008 7:14 pm

Here’s another great feed idea, set up a large fishpond, stock it with talapia, feed the talapia with the chicken poop, they love it. feed the talapia to the chickens.
This will provide solid protein, the chickens will fatten faster that with a diet of rice and corn.

[Reply to this]
carolscott
on July 13th, 2008 7:13 am

cool ideas Joe, have you been able to talk with any local GT farmers about this?

[Reply to this]
Joe Coxall
In reply to the above comment on July 13th, 2008 8:39 pm:
Carolscott,
The answer is no. I am just another blogger on the SN site. I do have dozens of prototypes of many simple technologies in the area of
Aquaponics, Solarcookers,Methane composters and waste composting methods.
Rammed earth home building. Natural community recycling mehods that can produce vegatables and fish from recycled waste. The fact is, I am not only saying it, I can do it also, but I am living in the USA and therefore can only say it at this time.

Everyday I read in SN of Guyana’s farmers grappling with problems that can be solved with simple tools and lots of man power, which they have plenty of. In Guyana we were taught to think within the confines of a “box” of established ideas.
Yet many of todays tecnological solutions came from people who refused to stay within that established confine.

Take for instance the GWI lamenting why they cannot pay their electricity bill. Well there is a simple solution. An accomplished engineer by the name of Joe Holden who by the way, invented the jet aircraft aferburner system, has already invented a hydro turbine which they can attach to the pumps they already have and provide their own electricity, It was designed exactly for that purpose, no Hydrodam is needed.

Other models can be placed under the Demerara harbour bridge to produce power. Guyana has got to stop relying on the expertise of those foreign textbook experts. The more prestigeous the University they come from, the more out of touch they are of the reality that is needed in a third world country. These experts are trained to carry out multimillion dollar projects useing all foreign equipment and personnel.

Guyana right now cannot afford that. They need to develop a recycle method between the pig farmer to the chicken farmer to the cowfarmer to the vegetable farmer to the fish farmer and so on. All of these isolated vertical farming systems need to establish lateral relationships to produce feed and fertilizer out of the waste processes of all their farming activity as a whole, nothing should be wasted in a farming system since all matter is stored energy, not waste.

Right now, a number of “free thinkers” are building earth friendly homes from earth. These buildings are known as living machines. They are designed with simple systems to produce their own power and food from sunshine and recycled home waste, grey water systems. Guyana still builds their toilets with septic tanks that release it’s methane into the atmosphere when it can be simply converted to a methane cooking gas system.

Another idea they need to look at is to start designing and building ferro cement pontoons with refridgerated chambers, these vessels are relatively cheap and easy to build, (a wireframe coated in cement). These can then be driven by tugboat with Guyana’s produce to the Caribbean islands.

Joe.

[Reply to this]
carolscott
on July 25th, 2008 8:35 pm

Hey Joe, do you have a website?

[Reply to this]
Joe Coxall
In reply to the above comment on July 27th, 2008 10:13 am:
Carolscott,
I do not have a website,I can set up one in 20minutes if it serves a purpose. I would not have the time to maintain it however.

It would be nice however if we can develop a forum to put together some sound ideas and somehow get it over to one of the bloggers in Guyana.

For those in Guyana who have the money,materials and technology, I say go right ahead with your modern development, but what about the majority who do not have the means, who is looking out for these folks.

It bleeds my heart to see these less fortunate people that are struggling to make ends meet. It does not have to be. Practical village style eco development can be carried out by the ordinary villagers, they can build homes, gardens, fishponds, fences, all useing mud, grass,silt,food waste,old bricks,tires and plastic bottles, everything around the yard that we used to consider junk, can now be reproccessed into food or home building materials.

I do not know if SN allows this but here is my email. joe.coxall@verizon.net. I do not believe that sending a barrel of goods to our relatives is all we could do, we need to teach these folks to catch their own fish. We need to somehow get together and try to transfer this eco living technology to those who need it most. I am open to any ideas.

It serves no purpose to only critise. We need to try and help.

Joe.

[Reply to this]