Buffetting : Pre-Porcine Farm Practical

The pit stop a day before the next series of farm practical: Kampar!

Money's hometown is about south by 30 kilometers from our next farm destination, and since we've planned to have a bit more time to ponder about before the next practical start, her house served as our best harbor.

Had a lil tense moment when
I kinda whined about how I should have gone back to Subang for I would have known 100 times better the route towards north from there compared to Selayang when we head back from Karak. 

The girls were talking about why should I seek for the fastest alternative to the place, when we'd actually have no check in time for practical or what not.

I was pissed off instantly.

Saying that,offended me quite a lil, especially when I was totally trying to get them more comfortable with all the items and baggage packed up in my sister's CR-V; and by reaching the destination sooner that can be done.

I maxed out the volume dial and stayed silent for at least 30 minutes in the car while driving.

Totally mad, but I see it as a way to keep my cool. If I talked more the whole car would have hated me.


So and so, we managed to reach the place even 30 minutes before expected time. Hell yeah, I guess I'm that good, or rather am I lucky enough to get there without traffic?

Had a great feast, knowing Money's parents that they are pretty cool duo to chat with, and her pets at home so adorable-im-going-to-die; and,

World War Z.

Another zombie movie. Should have totally went for The Heat if I googled up and know that it was zombie related.

It wasn't exactly a waste with all the thriller effect, but I really needed the Heat.

Buffetting : Poultry Farm Practical Summary

The whole practical was made possible as my mother was extremely close to the owner of the enterprise. Irony isn’t it? For my mother who was against the whole idea of my being in the agriculture sector to actually have resources to all these. It’s like, everything was meant to be, really.

Learned a lot, as depicted in the previous posts. But what I learned most about was how different perspectives see life differently. The farm manager, also the owner’s son, was only 28 yrs old, and he has been through so much. I feel quite inferior compared to him, and I wonder how far I fair in the coming days. I’m one step behind from so many people who have grown up with me, and looking at people who are closest and dearest to me stepping ahead into their next stage of life while I still remained in another baffles me, a lot.

The practical literally served as a mirror to me, and I’ve began to see more about myself.

RESOURCEFUL. Being able to set up this practical which even my attending lecture couldn’t made me a very resourceful person. I was able to set up logistics aka getting transport to the farm, while the whole practical was literally free, where the lodging and food was readily provided by the farm’s management. Yes, I’ve retrieved all these from my mother’s disposal of her knowing the owner; yet I’m pretty that many people are able to nab opportunities such as these.

ISOLATE. I, sadly isolates myself. Probably because of the presence of 2 pairs of lovebirds in this team. This was noticed by the farm manager himself. I guess I am. I thought I was comfortable, apparently my body begged to differ. I constantly find matters to distract and deter myself from these matters, and gosh Pete knows what my mind is really thinking. I spent a hefty 30 minutes sitting alone outside in the dark corridor just to reconcile my thoughts to make sure I don’t go berserk. And now I’ve decided to type it out, since I don’t really have many avenues to transmit my thoughts.

RESERVED. I can conclude that I am much more reserved than before. Back in high school I once was the person jumping from tables to next causing havoc and cracking up jokes regardless of my imae. It was obvious, especially during my prefect days. Yes, I was the Disciplinary Officer, but I go all out having fun. Today, I am much reserved. I have my crazy moments, but I don’t let my emotions and thoughts out as easily anymore. My siblings have people they can consolidate to; my elder sis was my mother, now her date; my brother his girlfriend and my younger sis her boyfriend. I don’t consolidate to my family simply because I don’t feel like they can relate, just yet. My friends, well, really I don’t tell them up straight. Maybe through channels like blog or the social media, but even today it’s just the blog. I don’t really see how people out there relate to my emotions and thinking anymore.

I constantly hope people tell me what they think about me, but the irony is, I don’t open up much. Really, I wonder what has happened to the old me. I feel, like a stranger. I guess me being strange to the friends I have now, made me a stranger to them. I really do wonder.

Buffetting : Poultry Farm Practical Day 5

It’s officially the final day for our poultry farm practical in Karak, and man it was good. We started off waking up at 5 am in the morning to get prepared for the entrance into the breeder farm. With biosecurity as the first priority in the farm manual, all 6 of us had to strip naked for sanitary shower with clothes prepared by the farm.

Going around the breeder farm basically focused on only few matters including the feed, the water, the temperature, getting the eggs as well as checking the chickens’ soundness. The breed used in this farm is Ross, with a better soundness for handling. The feed was fed as taught in the lectures, so as the males and females get equally distributed feed to ensure balanced growth for optimal libido and fertilized eggs production to be sent to the hatchery for hatching in the 3^rd day.

Temperature and the drinker was properly maintained, the atmosphere in each house was pretty cooling even though the cooling pads weren’t functioning, even more when we entered the house early in the morning at 5am.

The best part of the practical in today’s visit: Egg harvesting. Gosh it was like living my virtual dream of owning my farm in Harvest Moon! I get to pick eggs up from different nests situated in the farm, and observing how the hens were trying to incubate those eggs. The eggs laid before 5am were quite cold while the newly hatched eggs were really warm, like a boiled egg left for 10 minutes. The feeling picking up the eggs from the nest, and digging through the hens’ chests was really refreshing, and I was indeed living my dream as a farm trainee. I never had the wildest dream of living my life in the farm with a veterinarian degree, but thank goodness I’ve managed to make it here today.

The eggs were differentiated from each house by the colored trays to be sent ultimately to the hatchery; collected 5 times per day to prevent over 30% of eggs collection in one collection. This is to make sure each collection is made before pathogenic infections or damaged by the chickens running around each house.  We managed to retrieve and culled a few hens for their soundness doesn’t seem too promising. The comb was regressing, while the space between its sternum to its pelvic bone was less than 3 fingers wide. We had to perform a post-mortem on it, looking into its reproductive organ to see the defect. Apparently its ovaries began to regress, causing no egg production.

Overall, I’m pretty sure I’d love to work in farms, but I’m still not too sure about working in JUST a poultry farm. A barn with a dairy farm, with some bees and wine vineyard would just be perfect. I’m probably dreaming now, with Malaysia’s weather this doesn’t seem that all practical.

Buffetting : Poultry Farm Practical Day 3 and 4

               Day 3 started off not in the day, but at night of Day 2 at about 8pm. We got the once in a life time chance as vet students to enter a hatchery. Hatchery is a place where eggs are being hatched, so you’d really get the picture ait? The whole tour started out with disinfectant showering. Stripped naked, the 3 of us boys slid into the shower looking at each others’ butt to get ourselves cleaned before claiming our visitors’ clothing. Being vet students, I guess we have really done and seen it all.

              

        We got ourselves into the setter first, where eggs were incubated or set for 18 days at a high temperature between 37.5 to 37.7 degrees celcius. There are at least 10000 eggs hatched in one session, meaning at least 10000 chicks will be born after these eggs are transferred to the hatcher at 18 days’ old and hatched for another 3 more days between 36.7 to 37.2 dC. We were lucky as new chicks were hatched that night. The whole line was divided into a: setter, b:hatcher and c: quality control. We got ourselves to walk around baskets of chicks and looking into their soundness. Since these chicks will be sent out to be raised as broiler(meat) chicken, they have to be selected to be at least free from the typical deformities such as: unhealed navel, weak legs, defected beak, blinded eyes or even late hatching. Chicks selected will then be sent out in lorries equipped with ventilators to ensure the chicks’ temperature control; and is delivered at 4am in the morning to prevent traffic as well as heat stroke.

               

        So before these hatchable eggs were hatched, they need to be sent from the breeder’s house to the reception. The breeder house, will be discussed on the last post. The eggs upon reception require a process of disinfection named “fumigation”; in which formaline will be added to potassium permanganate or boiling parafoam over an enclosed house to kill all possible pathogens; as the breeders have a stronger immunity than newborn chicks. Fumigation is usually done for 20 minutes, while another 25 is spent to expel the fumigation air from the room.

      

          The hatchery tour ended with post mortem on the culled chicks, in which the chicks not selected to be sent and sold as broiler chicks. We were taught the methods to perform professional post mortem to discover diseased chicks’ conditions such as overheated hatchery by looking at black spotted gizzard, potentially bacterial infection in greenish yolk sacs and etc. Day 3 ended with us leaving back to the dorm at 3.00am; the earliest and latest practical we ever had.

      

          Day 4 started out with the same ol procedure of disinfectant shower to ensure biosecurity. We slotted into our green uniforms and strutted into the pullet houses of different weeks’ of age: 1 week, 8 weeks and 20 weeks old. Pullet was a critical period, but the main idea was to keep the pullets healthy, free from deformities, and ready to mate at 23 weeks after their reproductive organs are well developed.  Different weeks had different light intensity, temperature, light duration, feed amount, feeding procedure as well as soundness detection to ensure optimal growth to good production percentile in the upcoming 65 weeks of the pullet’s life. We managed to look for problematic cocks in which one of them had 2 reproductive organs, deeming it unfit for the production line and only a waste of feed. The post mortem proved its inefficiency as a male breeder since it also possess ovaries while it is much smaller in size compared to the other males of the same age.

    

            Day 4 ended in the evening, but it was really fun. I didn’t really have much time to think about matters happen on that day, meaning I really did enjoy the day in the pullet house.

Buffetting : Poultry Farm Practical Day 1 and 2

       The whole practical started off with a 2 days quarantine; which we barely it to a complete 2 days. But since we are on the clock, the manager decided that a quarantine without close contact with any other avian is still deemed quarantined.

The whole purpose of quarantine was about biosecurity at the first place; so as the birds from each production stages wouldn’t be susceptible to outside; bodily borne diseases. It can be concluded that biosecurity under this management is very stringent. Heck, every bird accounts to profit and loss; and one pathogen can wipe the whole house out putting losses up to million ringgits.

        Stepping into the dorm after greeted by Ah Loong, the newly promoted manager told us this practical would definitely be a comfortable one. The dorm is air-conditioned with comfortable setting, furbished even with a TV set and Astro device. Really, even the residential college can’t beat that. The first 2 days were really all about quarantine so the 6 of us only loitered in the dorm while reading up poultry production notes to refresh ourselves the knowledge we have long forgotten in last semester.

         That was before the farm owner; or rather the enterprise’s owner came in to brief us about the program we will be brought about for the upcoming week. 1^st hatchery, then the pullet house and last but not least the breeding flock house. We spent a hefty 3 hours on discussing about the history of the farm, the history of the enterprise, the difference of management in this farm compared to others, the poultry market up in both East and West coast of Malaysia, and even up to the dorm’s food. The little discussion ended with us knowing what to ponder around the program for the upcoming week; including the biosecurity measurements, the ways and methods entering the house and so on.

         So we had the 6 of us, 2 paired mates, a lil me and another lil Hottie. This practical somewhat allowed the simulation of us moving out of the residential college and moving into a rented house in the future. Well, we ought to turn out fine since the last 2 days were still fine by me, but Pete knows what the others are thinking.  I guess I’m gradually getting used to 2^nd chances being lovey-dovey around now; though kid-sister pair has a lesser extent of PDA around us. It’s not that bad, just the usual lovey-dovey; but well It’s not like I have another person to affectionate to anyway so you get the picture ait?

       The whole management would be really dry and the report is quite long, so putting it up here would really bore those who don’t favor the livestock industry.

As of now, I guess I should be living my life happily without really thinking about other stuffs. Just feel the moment like Christina Aguilera.

Buffeting : Practical hiatus

One month, solid gold.

In a hatchery, pig farm, and 2 different dairy farms.

Let's hope nothing bad but great stuffs happen!

And definitely looking forward to a more toned body after the whole series of labor work!

Pet's World was fun! Dogathon will definitely be much merrier this year!

Buffetting : See you Tomorrow!

It's Dogathon craze now!!!!!

My faculty, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine UPM will be having a booth in the Pet World Expose in Mid Valley Megamall from 12pm to 9.30pm starting from tomorrow till Sunday!

You readers out there better get your arses there if you are free to know more about the upcoming event and what the whole event is all about!

Updates on mid-exam-period will be posted after this!

Buffetting : Another random rant.

It's just so funny a status update can really bother you within minutes.

As mentioned before I should never feel exclusive.

親友のステータスを見る限り、自分が本当の失敗者だなあと思ってる。

僕、マジに、誰とも繋げないよなあ。

まったく。

 Fuck this shit. I'm done.