White-feathered broiler farming technology and prospects: Building a win-win industry development chain
"It's not just about me doing well; everyone has to do well together for the white-feathered broiler industry to develop sustainably!" Eleven years ago, Huang Shengyu returned to his hometown of Lucao, Chiayi to take over the family business, but faced an industry bottleneck, so he decided to gradually innovate his thinking and put it into practice in his own livestock farm operations and brand philosophy. Today, he has passed through the stages of being a novice chicken farmer, founding a brand, and establishing a company, yet he has not stopped moving forward. Not only does he work hand in hand with his younger sister Huang Huiru to convey a safe and positive image of white-feathered broilers, but in the future he will also complete a dedicated slaughter, cutting, and processing plant -- hoping to complete the brand blueprint, and also hoping to use his own business experience to guide more chicken farmers in breaking through, working together to secure a comeback victory for domestic white-feathered broilers.
Stepping into Huang Shengyu's livestock farm -- inside the entire water-curtain closed negative-pressure chicken house, about 50,000 white-feathered broilers reside. It is equipped with air vents, fans, and heaters to adjust room temperature, and has a spacious and dry area for them to run, feed, and rest. He regularly enters to observe the condition of the flock and fine-tunes the chicken house environment as needed.
Integrating scientific management with old experience, continuously improving to break through bottlenecks
Huang Shengyu originally worked in auto parts procurement. When his career was stable, he saw the domestic white-feathered broiler industry declining, so he was determined to return home to help his father with the chicken farming business that his father had persisted in for most of his life. However, having been raised by chickens, he had almost no independent rearing experience. Holding onto confidence, he self-studied everywhere, consulted experts, and did not follow his father's rules of thumb, instead raising chickens "by the book" in a formulaic way. "For example, textbooks record fixed temperatures for each stage; chicks need high temperatures, and chickens that have grown feathers need the temperature raised." Huang Shengyu gave an example: his father relied on rules of thumb accumulated over many years to judge, while he chose to replicate textbook knowledge. The father and son had different ideas, which naturally caused friction, but he also once raised a batch of chickens that even his father could not help but praise. However, afterward the survival rate declined. Huang Shengyu thought hard without result and turned to peers for advice, only then realizing that the seniors' "tricks of the trade" were all things his father had once reminded him of.
He explained that textbook knowledge should be "principles" and must be adjusted according to conditions on site, since details such as each chicken house's configuration and rearing environment differ greatly, affecting the chickens' condition again and again. "Take temperature, for example. Every season, different weather, and different times of day have different temperatures, but textbooks won't tell you these things -- at this point, experience is very important, so you have to go in often to patrol and see if there are any abnormalities." As soon as he enters the chicken house, he must first observe. If the chickens are all doing the same thing, he must adjust immediately. "For example, if they are all drinking water, then it may be too hot. Some running, some eating feed, some drinking water -- that is normal." Huang Shengyu emphasized that raising chickens for one day means experiencing day and night, and raising them for one year means going through four seasons. The environment and temperature at every moment are different, repeatedly testing the chicken farmer's keen observation of the chickens and the rearing environment, and it is also the key for chicken farmers to gain practical combat power.
In the past, Huang Shengyu managed the livestock farm according to his own ideas and the logic in books, but it was only then, amid setbacks, that he realized that textbook knowledge could not solve everything with one method. Whether one could adapt to time and place and apply old experience was the key to rearing. After this most important shift in mindset, he began to use new management knowledge such as ventilation, temperature, and feed nutrition, and then combined it with his own and his father's on-site experience, blending it into his own rearing principles. After overcoming this low point, he was also able to endure the torment of being a beginner and gradually become more grounded.
Resisting price-cutting competition, improving competitiveness is urgent
But raising good chickens is not enough. Huang Shengyu pointed out that the proportion of imported chicken meat is increasing year by year, and low-priced meat products continue to carve up the market. Domestically, large companies surround the field, and ordinary small farmers find it relatively difficult to stand out with their own brands, so they often choose contract farming with large companies to survive. Therefore, for him, after raising high-quality white-feathered broilers, he must further think about how to let more people see the value of carefully raised white-feathered broilers in order to advance the industry. Huang Shengyu further explained that domestic manufacturers, in order to compete with imported chicken meat, actively integrate the upstream and downstream industry chain, not only providing chicken farmers with feed and chicks, but after the rearing period reaches a certain number of days, sending the chickens directly to slaughter and pushing them onto sales channels.
As a result, this "standardized" rearing model makes chicken farmers who cannot stand on their own function as "contract manufacturers," with no way to choose or demand chicken quality. Coupled with price-cutting competition among peers, chicken farmers' profits sink lower and lower. "One chicken may not even earn ten yuan." Many people have no choice but to invest in expanding farms and moving toward scale in pursuit of small profits but quick turnover. "But when everyone rushes to raise chickens, there are other problems, namely that the prices of chicks and feed keep getting more expensive, causing rearing costs to increase."
Therefore, farmers' profits fell to the bottom, further pushing the industry into a vicious cycle. Under this cycle, most people still pursue low prices in order to beat imported meat, but Huang Shengyu asked himself, "The wave of globalization cannot be stopped. If cheaper imported chicken meat comes, what should we do?" He knew that a price-cutting competition strategy was not a long-term solution, so he was unwilling to keep struggling along with small profits but quick turnover, and decided to go the opposite way -- building his own brand, hoping that through the efforts and thinking of the new generation, he could improve his competitiveness and rearing technology and break through the deadlock first.
Founding a dedicated brand, using quality to create market differentiation
"At that time, when I wanted to build a brand, some people were not optimistic and said directly: 'The big companies have already occupied the market and are cutting prices. You will definitely fail!'" But Huang Shengyu still dared to break away from the contract farming model and establish Yuzheng Food Co., Ltd., because with years of accumulated rearing experience, he summarized consumers' demand for food safety and aimed the brand's core at producing "safe" chicken meat, hoping to open a new path that could be self-reliant and uniquely positioned for his own family. Once the slogan "safe" was put forward, the actions also had to match. Huang Shengyu laughed and said: "The water pipes here are divided into two, one for my family to drink and the other for the chickens to drink, so we drink the same water!"
He also added probiotics to the feed and added herbs to the drinking water, working through both approaches at once, using good bacteria to suppress bad bacteria, and even obtained the "functional feed" label. "Only after truly obtaining credible certification can you gain consumers' trust," Huang Huiru added. In addition to strengthening the chickens' constitution and enhancing immunity through what they eat, he also started improving environmental equipment. The livestock farm is a water-curtain closed negative-pressure chicken house that can regularly exhaust air and control temperature. When the weather is too hot, water curtains are used to cool the space. As for the circulation fans inside, they can convection the fresh air sent in through the air vents. In addition, there are several heaters inside, like dedicated heating for the chickens that can regularly raise the temperature to avoid excessively low temperatures affecting the survival rate.
And to avoid overcrowding, each chick is given ample activity space, which not only conforms to the ideal of humane rearing but also allows healthy growth. As for the rearing site, in addition to complete environmental equipment, because they make good use of solar panels and energy-saving lighting to practice concepts such as saving energy and reducing pollution, they obtained the "green farm" label. Huang Huiru said, "Because we are not only building a brand, we also want to connect with this land." In addition, the farm also has the white-feathered broiler industry's first traceability certificate, humane rearing label, and friendly livestock production label, using certifications from all sides to dialogue with consumers and gain trust, steadily creating differentiation in a highly competitive market.
Transparent traceability as the highest principle, taking steps toward a sustainable industry
In the ten years since returning home, Huang Shengyu and Huang Huiru have worked hard together, not only inheriting the family business but also challenging themselves to forge a new path. In 2017, he won the Outstanding Farmer Award. He recalled with a smile that at the time he did not take the "Shennong Award," the Oscars of Taiwan's agricultural sector, all in one go, which inevitably left him disappointed. "But if I had won it, perhaps the extent of progress in these past few years would not have been so great."
He and Huang Huiru admitted that the Outstanding Farmer Award felt like invisible pressure, reminding them to keep stepping forward and pushing ahead. "I still remember what the judges said at that time: not only should you do well yourself, you should also become a benchmark leading the industry, so that everyone can do well together." On the road to the summit, they thus had a direction to move forward. "So, in the past two years we have begun planning a slaughter, cutting, and packaging plant."
Huang Shengyu analyzed that with their own factory, from rearing to shipping they would no longer rely on others, and could better control quality and safety, raising the standard again for the spirit of "safety and traceability" they had been advocating all along. "At the same time, we can also help other farmers enter traceability systems and improve chicken quality." "Many farmers also want to build brands, but they get stuck in the back-end market and do not know how to sell."
Huang Huiru explained that they can guide chicken farmers at the front end to adopt relevant government policies, such as traceability, while controlling rearing quality. After consolidating quality, the company's internal factory can complete slaughter and follow-up work, and assist with end-market sales. "I believe this kind of breakthrough will become a benchmark factory for Taiwan's white-feathered broiler industry, and also a way to lead the industry forward." Huang Shengyu hopes their strength can enable more hesitant and watchful chicken farmers to grow together without worries and become positive energy for the white-feathered broiler industry.