MANOK PiNOY COCKERELS READY FOR THE MARKET

By Manny Pinol

Almost four years after I started an experimental breeding of a new Philippine backyard chicken strain which I named Manok PiNoy, Braveheart Farms of Kidapawan City, North Cotabato is all set to deliver these naturally-grown free-ranged chicken to the market in commercial quantity starting May this year.

Cockerels in limited number are now available but these will be mostly sold to select restaurants in Davao City.

In fact, the first test delivery will be done on Friday to a chicken specialty restaurant when about 30 cockerels will make up the delivery of live chicken weighing an average of 750 grams each, which is the preferred weight of the restaurant for its “lechon manok” specialty.

The owner of the chicken restaurant in Davao City whose main branch is a popular place for lechon manok lovers in Cebu City had earlier placed a monthly order of 2,000 heads which I believe we will be able to satisfy starting May.

With about 500 hens now in the breeding yards, we expect to be able to produce enough for the requirements of specialty restaurants and the chicken barbecue stalls in Kidapawan City.

As our production increases, dressed Manok PiNoy will be made available in leading supermarkets in Kidapawan City and Davao City and the major wet markets in and around the Province of North Cotabato.

Much of the pullets (the female young chicken) will be retained as additional breeding materials.

Officially, however, we made our first sale last Tuesday when M’lang Mayor Lito Pinol, my younger brother, came to the farm and bought 10 heads of cockerels weighing a little over 1 kilo each.

Our first receipted sale was P1,650 and I instructed my eldest daughter, Dr. Maria Krista Pinol-Solis who is pregnant and stays in the farm to get more fresh air and a lot of exercise and sunlight, to place the peso bills in a frame as a remembrance of the day we first made money out of Manok PiNoy.

Exciting days are ahead of us as Manok PiNoy finally gets to enter the naturally-grown and free-ranged backyard chicken market.