Vietnam broiler breeder farm helps respond to local demand

The result of a US$2 billion government investment, the Phuoc Toc broiler breeder farm, is located in Ba Ria in Vietnam’s Vung Tau province and some 60 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City.

While Vietnam may still be a Communist country, it has a rapidly growing capitalist industrial base, leading to rising living standards. Meat consumption is growing, as is tourism, resulting in growing demand for poultry meat. Yet the country remains unable to meet this growing demand, hence the investment in Phuoc Toc.

“The Phuoc Toc facility took 18 months to build and has been in production for 12 months,” says manager Nguyen Cong Trung, who runs the facility with 15 staff. “It is stocked with Luong Phuong birds, sourced from China and which are noted for their disease resistance. Seventy percent of the output will be reared locally with the remaining 30 percent being dispatched all over Vietnam.”

Design  

The site is well laid out and surrounded by a substantial wall for security reasons. An office and vehicle disinfectant dip are located at the farm entrance, again normal practice in Vietnam. Currently, the site has 20,200 birds. There are 5,400 hens and 700 cocks in each of the two breeding houses, and 7,000 hens and 1,000 cocks in the integrator house.
Each building is well spaced from its neighbor, block built and painted neutral cream. The house floors are all elevated, which allows the bird droppings to pass through by gravity to ground level, accumulate and eventually be removed by a skid steer loader and trucks.

Without outside temperatures being some 30C, keeping birds cool is important.

Typically a tunnel ventilation system is used, with air being pulled in through large cooling pads, by large fans fitted across the end of the buildings. Blinds are also fitted down the sides” commented Vo Chau, who heads up Big Dutchman’s Vietnamese operation, which supplied the facility with equipment. “Big Dutchman was delighted to win the order to supply and fit all the equipment, ranging from fans to flooring, silos, augers, feeders, drinkers and miscellaneous fittings.

”Nest boxes are located down the centre of each house with eggs being automatically conveyed to the end of the building where they are packed manually on to plastic trays, after which they are loaded into the incubators. The facility has installed incubators from two companies, Pas Reform and Jamesway.

With regard to health management, a substantial number of vaccines are administered through the drinkers, with de-beaking taking place when the chicks are eight days old.

Feed is manufactured at a state feed mill, bagged up and then hauled 25 km to the farm. Because feed is stored in bulk in silos on the farm, the bags have to be laboriously emptied into a hopper and auger, which feeds into the top of each feed bin. Feed is then augured into the feed lines from the bins.
Phuoc Toc farm is still gearing up to run at full capacity, but even so the facility is an important addition to the Vietnamese poultry industry. In addition to producing eggs and chicks, the facility also provides training courses for local farmers.