It was my 6th week of intern ,and yesterday, friday, unexpectedly, i have the chance of going to chicken farm!
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| One of the farm of Sinmah Multifeed Sdn Bhd, coded NS 1 |
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| The outside view of one of the brooders |
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| The entry to the farm |
Thanks to Dr Narex and Dr Azril for allowing me to have a chance of having a short trip to Sinmah Breeders Farm ( NS1) at rembau .
Today at noon, I am so surprised that Dr Azril came to me and told me that he and Dr Nerex will bring me to the breeder farm.i was taken aback, feeling so surprised as I am not expecting he will bring me over there today. I thought he will bring me over next week. At the same time I am so excited to have this chance to go to the farm to witness the operation and condition of the farm with my own eyes.
We departed at 12.30pm after I got permission from Miss Toh( QA Manager of Sinmah Multifeed). We had a chat in Dr Narex ‘s new car( Kia) while on the way to the farm. This new car is a four wheel car which is newly bought by the company. As a vet, Dr Narex and Dr Azril are expected to travel a lots, thus the car, petrol fees, as well as all the maintenance fees are under company sponsorships and responsibility. As they need to travel daily to the breeder farm , so this kind of benefit will be surely provided by the company. Dr Azril was expecting his new car to be a better four wheel car, maybe a Hyundai or Kia, but he is not so expecting the company will provide him a better and costlier can than Dr Nerex as Dr Nerex is his senior and junior, and I am wondering is a junior will expectedly have a company sponsored car of cheaper price than a senior? LOL, I guess this is a very subjective and I know that Dr Azril will feel contented to whatever new car the company got to offer him. But for sure the previous salon car was a no no, as it would be very troublesome to travel against a stony and hilly roads up to the farm with a salon car, definitely a four wheel car is needed.
When we reached the farm after having our lunch( Nasi Daun Pisang) at one of the famous Indian restaurant at Tampin, Dr Nerex and Dr Asril guided and explained to me the operation of the farm.The farm located at a very remoted area. I noticed at the entrance there are wheel drip column specially for lorry to dip the tyres and be sprayed with the disinfectant sprayer fixed around the wall before entering the farm.This is to avoid
any contamination and ensure good sanitary.
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The chicks are lying and enjoying the feeds on the feeder. |
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| The drinker in Red and Yellow colour. |
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| A few chicks awaiting for Post-Mortem. |
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| Wow, when you stepped into the brooder , the chicks will shunned away from you. |
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| The heater in the brooder |
There are 5 workers and when I reached there, there are 2 indonesian workers in charge of the farm. They have their own wooden house to stay as they need to take care of the birds 24 days 7 weeks. The farm manager is a Chinese guy who rent the facilities and land for Sinmah breeder group to grow broilers there. There are 7-8 brooders( a heated house for chick) for growing the birds, each brooder can have the capacity to accommodate up to 17000 birds.
The wood shaving are scattered on a floor layer for the small birds to move around. According to Dr Nerex and Dr Azril, the use of wood shaving has its purposes. It protects the small birds (Grower) from falling down from the brooder. When the birds start to grow for a certain size, the layer of wood shaving will be rolled up because the birds are able to walk stably on the brooder. Besides serving the purpose of protection, the wood shaving also absorb moisture and provide heat to the birds. There are drinkers and feeder inside the coop which are to provide water and feed to the birds. Sometimes the drinkers might be unbalanced and contains not enough water, so the workers need to take note and correct the mistakes whenever possible. Dr Nerex said the feeder need to be full of feeds as birds sometimes can have a different eating habit, and thus the feed need to be filled fully to ensure the birds obtain enough nutrients for their growing pattern.
Besides , the brooder also equipped with heater( using infrared ray ) to provide heat to the birds. it is usually switched on at night. When the birds grow to 1.5-1.7kg only will the birds be sent to be slaughtered and further processed in Food industries.
It will take half year for a hen to mature and 67th week old to continuously producing eggs . The capability for a hen to produce eggs range from 175-180 eggs per life span.
Integrated companies like Sinmah have the whole operation of producing chicken to further processing the meat based food . So basically there are Sinmah Livestock, Sinmah Breeder, Sinmah Food Industries which cater for the need of an integrated company.
To make it simple, there are basically divided into three categories:
- Broiler- The tasks is to grow the broilers for further processed food purposes. The broilers are usually be given unlimited nutrients and allow for quicker grow.
- Layer- This category has its sole purpose, that is to grow the broiler which meant for only laying eggs.Cocks and hens are not allowed to mate, thus hens will yield unfertilised eggs.
- Breeder – to breed the birds , allowing the mating between cocks and hens. Fertilisation occurs and eggs hatched to produce chicks.
Dr Nerex and Dr Azril performed post mortem to a few birds. As a vet ,they are supposed to check the farm in which mortality of birds are reported to verify the health status. Dr Nerex even tested me the name of the organs from which he dissects the birds. luckily I answer them correctly all thanks to the practical experience I obtained from dissecting rats during Matriculation Biology practical as well as biochemistry practical 1.
It is an eye opening experience to have short visit to the chicken farm. If one day i ever have a chance, i will surely set up my own farm=p
