Year by year, demands for environment friendly management are increasing in almost all industrial sectors including livestock industry. Such needs of the times inevitably raised the concerns on handling feces and ammonia gas in animal farms together with the labor shortages more than ever. It is no wonder a lot of layer farms are seeking after ways to protect environment and secure product quality while not spending much on such activities.

Here are two layer farms which have solved the environment problems and succeeded in producing high quality eggs through Biotite V, developed as an environment friendly antibiotics replacement by SoltoBio (the Brand name of Seobong BioBestech Co., Ltd.).

"Layer farm, located at Seosan-dong Yeongcheon-gun Gyeongsangbuk-do"

Mr. Kim, Bong-hyun, 63, is running a layer farm with 30,000 layers at Seosan-dong, Yeongcheon-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. He says it has become much easier than before raising chickens, after Biotite V inclusion in feed.

In 1973, Mr. Kim has stepped into livestock industry and is still working in the same industry for 30 years. He is famous for investing a lot to his layers, the profit sources. He selects best breeds, and supplies best quality nutritional supplements. This resulted in better egg shell, egg yolk, egg white, and egg transparency than others. Many layer business related people are visiting him and inviting him to their farms to learn his management Know-How.

In the early 90’s, even feed and labor cost had been a burden for him because of fluctuating egg prices, but, at present, Mr. Kim is confident of the high competitiveness of his layer farm with one small and three big aviaries on 20,000 m2 wide land. His success is the results of endless efforts and serious care for the layers against diseases like other layer farms.

One of the Know-Hows is to use Biotite V. To lower the mortality rate of layers in the early stage, he provides Biotite V. Knowing the importance of the early stage, he cares for layers with his own hands when chickens are starting to lay eggs. In addition to his efforts, Biotite V inclusion decreased mortality rate almost down to zero level.

“Chickens are like human, so they also should be cautiously cared for during the first delivery period. I thought that it is inevitable to see one or two dead chickens, but Biotite V inclusion lowered mortality rate. It was year’s record figure,” he said.

Another Know-How is water control. Mr. Kim explained that anybody running a layer chicken farm should be careful of water supply, because increased water intake might decrease feed intake of layers under the high temperature of summer season. According to him, cold water supply can increase feed intake and improve egg production rate and egg shell quality.

Increased water intake, however, affects feed intake quantity fall-down, so he adds nutritional supplements in water. He says that water quantity and supply time control are key factors in case of vitamins inclusion. He explained certain quantity of vitamins addition in water within four hours is important to minimize the loss of vitamins.

Besides water, proper temperature and air conditions are also main concerns of layer chicken industry. Though everybody knows them, understanding exactly appropriate temperature and air conditions for a specific farm directly affects productivity and profit.

Poor ventilation diminishes oxygen and increases CO2. He emphasized that ammonia gas increase leads to reduced feed intake and this results in outbreak of diseases, so ventilation should be the first priority to prevent decrease in egg production and growth rate, including hike in mortality rate. Mr. Kim added Biotite V was very effective in air conditioning in the aviary, and the ammonia gas decreasing and immune system improving efficacies by Biotite V brought remarkably diminished mortality rate, when 0.2% of it is used in one ton of feed,

“The quantity of excrements from chickens increases as they are getting old and it leads to the generation of toxic gases like carbonic acid gas, ammonia gas, and so on, so I started providing Biotite V from old chickens. Most reasonable management can be acquired when management principles and farm surroundings are considered together,” he explains.

Though the business has got on the stable track, he always carefully watches the variety of variables from live animals, characteristic of livestock industry. He says that it is ever new to him to manage this layer farm.

- Excerpt from Livestock Times 28th July, 2003 issue -