MANILA, Philippines — One of the first things that former Senator Leticia Shahani told us when we met her at the recent Agri-Kapihan in Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan was that we should not only write about successful farmers. We should also write about farming failures.

The former senator is now retired from politics and is doing her own brand of farming. She said she is taking care of 15 Murrah buffaloes for milk production. We remember that at one time she headed an NGO that advocated local milk production.

Well, there are many instances of farming failures and the reasons could be as varied as the farmers themselves. We remember a sports personality who failed in his poultry project. He was a contract grower of a well known food company. As a contract grower, he put up the housing for about 40,000 broilers.

The scheme runs like this: The contract grower provides the housing, the labor, electricity and a few others. The integrator, on the other hand, provides the chicks, the feeds, medicine and veterinary services. After 45 days (at that time, it is just over 30 days now), the broilers would be harvested by the integrator.

The contract grower is paid according to the weight of the birds. The chickens have to attain a certain desired weight, say 1.6 kilos after 45 days. If the birds attain that weight, the grower will be compensated with a certain amount. If the weight exceeds 1.6 kilos, there is a bonus. On the other hand, if the weight is below the minimum weight, the contract grower will be penalized.

Our sportsman contract grower relied on a nephew who dropped out of college to take care of the farm. Because he was busy in Manila, he usually went to the poultry farm twice a week. He was confident the nephew would take good care of the birds.

Unfortunately, the arrangement with his nephew did not work well. The chickens did not attain the minimum weight agreed upon. The result? The sportsman turned contract grower had to sell two of his cars to pay for the penalty.

How come? The birds were underweight because they were not given enough feeds. It turned out that his nephew sold part of the feeds provided by the integrator. They were underfed so they were underweight.

The lesson, said our friend, is that in poultry raising, you should not trust even your relatives.

ANOTHER POULTRY FAILURE – This one is a little different from the case above but the result is the same.

Let’s call him Danny. He had a thriving broiler contract growing operation in northern Luzon. He was raising 50,000 broilers. His wife who held a high position in a bank was transferred to another province so he had to go with the wife. Fortunately, there was also a well paying job waiting for him where his wife was posted.

What to do with the contract-growing project? He left the management to a brother-in-law who had always been with him in the business. Like in the case of the sportsman above, the chickens did not attain the desired weight required by the integrator. How come?

Well this is what the brother-in-law did. In every house that was stocked with 10,000 chicks, the brother-in-law bought his own chicks and placed 1,000 in each house. They were boarders sharing in the feeds provided by the integrator. Of course, he harvested his broilers before the integrator went to harvest theirs.

In his frustration, Danny had to stop the operation.

BIG LAYER FARM THAT FOLDED UP – This happened many years ago but we still remember the story. Let’s call him Johnny who at one time was producing 300,000 eggs a day. His heyday as a major player in the egg business somehow had to end, thanks to his own making.

It could not be said that disease wiped out his flock. He had access to the best technical consultants. He himself knew the fine points of poultry raising. The only trouble, according to a close friend of the poultry raiser, was that he neglected his financial obligations. He diverted his funds to another project that was hardly related to agribusiness.

He was receiving a lot of money all right because the price of eggs had been good, but he forgot to settle his bills with the suppliers of feeds, medicines, his loan from the bank and other accountabilities.

When he was remiss in the payment of his accounts, his suppliers suddenly stopped delivering feeds and medicines to him. As many people know, chickens are among the most sensitive creatures. Once they don’t get the ration due them, they immediately stop laying eggs.

The poultry raiser was alarmed, of course, but it was too late. He had accumulated so much back accounts that he could not settle them to the satisfaction of the suppliers.

Poor Johnny, he had to sell his pullets and other stocks at very low prices if only to raise some money for the needs of his chickens as well as for his arrears. The once-prosperous poultry farm collapsed and the remaining assets foreclosed by the lenders.

The obvious lesson here is never to let your accountabilities pile up. They could bury you alive.

WINNING STRATEGIES – Instead of failures, let’s see some winning strategies. Like a big poultryman from Cavite. The poultryman had a brother who was a partner in a big hospital in Manila. So when he was new in the business, he decided to sell his eggs to a number of hospitals in Manila.

The problem was that he had difficulty in collecting payment for his deliveries. The initial arrangement was that payment should be made every 15 days. But that was not to be so. When went to collect, the cashier would invariably say that the check was not yet ready. Could he go back at the end of the month? Even then, sometimes when the end of the month came, the check was not yet ready.

In his frustration, he gradually withdrew his deliveries to the hospitals. Instead, he got a stall in three big markets in the Zapote area which is not too far from his farm in Cavite. That saved him a lot of headache. He had simplified his marketing. All his driver had to do was to deliver the eggs to the three stalls everyday. And everyday he received cash for 25,000 to 35,000 eggs he collected from his farm.

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AGRI-KAPIHAN AT ST. VINCENT – There will be an Agri-Kapihan this Saturday, January 22, at the AANI Weekend Market at St. Vincent Seminary on Tandang Sora, Quezon City.

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Log on to www.zacsarian.blogspot.com for Agri ZACcess Ideas. You will be happy you did. Just one bright idea you pick up could make a big difference in your farming life.