Birds of the same feather succeed together:

INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE TURKEY AND BROILER FARMING

Innovative and Sustainable Turkey and Broiler Farming is an agribusiness venture by Rancho Velasco located at Purok 3, Barangay Bagong Silang, Calauag, Quezon Province. Its proponents are Lawrence Joseph L. Velasco and Elysah M. Reyes.

Starting the agribusiness

Rancho Velasco is a 20-hectare livestock and poultry farm established in December 2018. It has 20 cows and carabaos, which are taken care of by the local farmers through the paiwi system, and is also involved in hog raising.

Both the proponents have certain tasks to perform in the enterprise. Velasco is in charge of farm management and the production of their processed products, while Reyes takes the helm in marketing their products and record keeping.

Securing the business through YFCF

Velasco and Reyes decided to join the Young Farmers Challenge Fund (YFCF) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for additional finances. Fortunately, they were declared awardees of the Provincial Level and Regional Level Competitions. They received a financial grant amounting to Php 100,000, which was used for additional turkey and broiler production to their growing enterprise.

Currently, they have purchased six turkey breeders and 200 heads of chicks for broilers, which are raised in the newly constructed multipurpose free-range facility that was constructed with the help of their Provincial Level financial grant.

With the help of the Local Government of Calauag, the proponents have conducted a seminar on the profitability of turkey farming, which was attended by the local farmers in their municipality. This is their way to encourage the local farmers to engage in turkey production and to promote their breeds and products.

They started producing their marinated chicken, which they marketed and sold online. They also formed an agreement with a stall owner in the Calauag Public Market to buy their 200 dressed chicken and its internal organs. The 20 pieces of turkey chicks and eight pieces of fertilized poultry egg were sold to a walk-in buyer.

Velasco and Reyes were also hailed Regional Level awardees of the Program, triumphantly representing the CALABARZON Region and receiving a financial grant amounting to Php 150,000. They plan to have a processing facility constructed for their processed products such as marinated chicken and roasted turkey overload. ###