June 24, 2009

STD Charoen Farm (STD), a duck farm operator in Thailand's Prachin Buri Province, has spent THB85 million to establish a closed farming system using the Evaporative Cooling System (Evap) to achieve bio-secure production.

The move is aimed at reducing the risk of disease outbreaks. Evap, developed by Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) more than 30 years ago to manage chicken farms, is being applied to a duck farm for the first time by STD.

The system allows farmers to feed more ducks, implement biosecure production, and can be controlled via a computer.

STD's closed farming operation's total production of 192,000 ducks has been reduced form 55-60 days to 40-45 days.

Compared with open-farming management, which allows company to feed just 5,000-6,000 ducks, the compartmentalised farming system feeds 12,000 ducks.

STD's average production cost is THB95-THB105 per duck. Thailand's total duck production is 900,000- to one million a year. Of the total, 60 percent is exported and the remainder goes to the domestic market.