Crossbreeding of native chicken gets promising results

MANILA, Philippines - Native chicken plays an important contribution to the economic well-being of rural farming communities in the country. In spite of being inferior in terms of productivity compared with commercial chicken breeds, majority of smallhold farmers opt to raise native chicken as a source of food and additional income as it does not require special care and management

The demand for native chicken in the market has also steadily increased because of its unique taste and suitability to many local dishes. Local restaurants and catering services are looking for a regular and stable supply of native chicken meat in the market.

However, low productivity remains a problem for the backyard raisers due to the relatively small body size and low egg production performance of native chicken. Thus, Francisco Geromo of Western Mindanao Integrated Agricultural Research Center (WESMIARC) of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 9  led the conduct of the “Community-based Native Chicken Project.”

Funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), the project aimed to help in packaging and commercializing the technologies related to community-based native chicken production in Zamboanga Peninsula.

These activities were conducted: profiling of native chicken, growing and selection of upgraded breeder stocks,  crossbreeding of native chicken with four upgraded roosters, growth performance of upgraded chicken,  egg production and hatchability performance of upgraded chicken,  profitability assessment, sensory evaluation and acceptability testing of four upgraded chickens, and mass production of upgraded chickens for dispersal in the community.

The study elicited significant findings regarding crossbreeding of the native chicken with four upgraded roosters. It was found that the offspring of the four upgraded roosters namely Kabir, Sasso, Jolojano, and Plymouthrock crossed to native chicken has no significant difference in terms of weight.

However, the Jolojano breed crossed with native chicken was found  to be more resistant to pests and diseases with good mothering ability. All the crosses reached maturity in four to five  months. Likewise, when the four upgraded roosters  were crossed again with native chicken in the farmers’ field, egg production and weight of eggs were not affected by any of the four upgraded breeds of chicken. 

In terms of hatchability performance, it was observed that natural incubation gave a higher percentage of hatchability as compared with those subjected in artificial incubation for four upgraded breeds crossed with native chicken, with hatchability performance ranging from 81-83 percent and 61-63 percent, respectively.

The upgraded Kabir crossed with native chicken has a significantly higher weight of about 1.81 kg as compared with other upgraded chickens. The offspring of native chickens showed the lowest gain in weight of about 1.48 kg. Likewise, offspring of upgraded Kabir and native chicken was more efficient among other upgraded chickens, which required only 8.36 kg of feed in producing a kilo of meat.

An on-farm study revealed that Kabir crossed with native chicken got the highest return on investment  of about 17 percent and net return of P882.84 compared with rest of upgraded chickens and the native.

Native chicken crossed with native chicken got the lowest ROI of about 0.38 percent and net return of P19.47. Thus, it is recommended to go for upgraded Kabir as it was found superior in terms of weight and efficiency in feed conversion.

For egg and chick production, it was observed that the average egg production and mean weight of eggs were significantly higher in four upgraded chickens crossed with native as compared with native crossed with native. The four upgraded chickens produced on average 12-14 pieces of eggs at 45-47 grams, in which the upgraded Jolojano has the highest egg production at 14 pieces, while the native crossed with native has an average egg production of 11 pieces and mean weight of eggs of about 45 grams.

In terms of marketing, whether it is live chicken, dressed, or cooked, both the raisers and traders preferred to sell the chicken as live.