SPDA: Raising Broiler Chickens for the First Time
SULOP, DAVAO DEL SUR (2 February 2025) – The final hauling of the full grown remaining birds started at around 1:00 o’clock at dawn of February 2, 2025 until midnight the following day at the new SPDA Poultry Farm in Barangay Labon, Sulop, Davao del Sur. This marked the first grow cycle of the poultry farm of Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) with San Miguel Foods, Inc. as its poultry integrator.
The Initial harvest of about 20,000 full grown birds with an average live weight of 1.50 kilograms per bird, was conducted on January 28, 2025. This thinning was being done to decongest the farm, giving sufficient spaces to the remaining birds for 2 days to attain the maximum desired live weight before the full harvest which was implemented Sunday, February 2, 2025.
Operations Department Manager Cristy B. Dagala, who earlier expressed gratitude to visionary SPDA Administrator and Chief Executive Officer Abdulghani ‘Gerry’ Ajul Salapuddin for the latter’s unwavering support to everyone who supported this project, disclosed that another grow cycle is expected to commence after the clearing, cleaning, and disinfection of the poultry farm within ten days following the first harvest.
Dagala said this project will continue to operate on a cycle basis and expected SPDA poultry farm to have seven cycles per year. “If we are efficient, we expect to generate income of at least one million pesos per cycle for the 2 buildings or about 80,000 birds capacity and net of operating expenses”, he added.
During the recent first harvest, Dagala disclosed a very impressive performance which reportedly gaining 98% recovery, indicating a greater efficiency in poultry farming. In poultry business, ‘recovery’ refers to the percentage of live birds that are successfully processed and turned into saleable products.
He said SPDA Poultry Farm in Davao del Sur has significantly contributed in addressing the demand gap of chicken meat in Mindanao while generating revenue for the Authority and national government’s coffers. Additionally, he added, SPDA has provided the locals employment through this project, a great contribution to the Local Government of Sulop, Davao del Sur, and Mindanao as a whole.
Mindanao tops in broiler production
The Department of Agriculture (DA) in its recent report, disclosed that Mindanao is considered a top region in the Philippines for broiler production with majority of the broiler population is concentrated in its northern and southern regions.
It has reported that majority of the broiler population in Mindanao can be found in its southern and northern regions. These two regions have about 85 percent of the population where operators of poultry integrators are heavily concentrated.
Mindanao has three big industry players namely, SPDA integrator San Miguel Foods, Inc., Swift Foods, Inc. and Bounty Agri Ventures, Inc. These companies maintain their own contract breeders, contract growers, hatcheries, feed mills, and dressing plants to support their operations.
DA said the poultry industry will continue to be the growth leader even in the world market. In the second quarter of 2023, Northern Mindanao had produced 39,080 metric tons of chicken, which was the third highest volume in the country.
According to the Chicken Situation Report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Northern Mindanao is listed as one of the top regions in the country for broiler chicken production, consistently ranking among the top five regions with the highest volume of chicken production by live weight, alongside Central Luzon, CALABARZON, Western Visayas, and Central Visayas. (Celestino B. Siglos with reports from DA & PSA)
