HIGH-TECH BROILER GROWER. Angel Bryan Yumul, 36-year-old La Salle biology graduate, raise birds in totally enclosed houses where no flies can enter, using the multiple entry ventilation system.

Get a copy of the July issue of Agriculture Magazine and read how more and more broiler raisers are going for less antibiotics and using more probiotics.

Among the high-tech contract growers featured in the issue are the brothers Arvin and Angel Bryan Yumul who operate the Lightning Ridge Farm in Brgy. Binubusan, Lian, Batangas. The brothers are raising 100,000 broilers per batch for Foster Foods, one of the leading poultry integrators in Luzon today. The brothers treat their birds with antibiotics only once in their growing period instead of three times as has been the practice of most raisers before. Instead, they are using more probiotics like Biolyte and Nutradec.

Probiotics are formulations of vitamins and minerals that are inoculated with enzymes and beneficial microorganisms. These improve the immune systems of the birds so that they are better able to resist disease as well as other stresses.

Under the contract-growing terms, Foster Foods provides the probiotics to its contract growers. This is in addition to the chicks, the feeds and a technical representative who advises the growers, monitoring the status of the birds throughout the growing season.

Foster Foods has adopted the policy of using as little antibiotics as possible so that no traces of antibiotic residue will be found in the chicken meat sold to customers.  Foster Foods is a major supplier of poultry meat to giant food chains like McDonald’s and Jollibee which are increasingly becoming particular about antibiotic residue in the meat they serve to their customers.

Other contract growers featured in the magazine who are using more probiotics and less antibiotics are Garlando Luna of Balungao, Pangasinan and Ramoncito Bella of Cabuyao, Laguna.

Even growers of Sunshine free-range chickens are shunning the use of antibiotics, like Michael ‘TJ’ Gonzalez of Baliuag, Bulacan. And speaking of Sunshine Chickens, Dr. Rey Itchon and wife Sandy will give a free seminar on raising naturally-farmed Sunshine Chickens on Saturday, June 27, from 9 to 11 a.m., at the Harbest Agribusiness Training Center in Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan.