Zacess Story

Mr. Zac Sarian, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, multi awarded journalist, Editor for Agriculture of Manila Bulletin... We enjoy the pleasure of being able to join him in farm visits and interviews with successful farmers.

In Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura every Sunday over DWWW, he has a segment called Zacess Stories. There, he talks about success stories...its not the magnitude, it is in the manner of how people have uplifted themselves. I like listening to him tell those stories.

The program isn't scripted so no one knows what comes up in one's segment. Not too long ago, we were all surprised when it was Toto Barcelona of Harbest Seed Company, who was the Zacess Story. He is a regular at the radio program so we were all pleased :) His age was mentioned and I said to Toto, " I hope in 8yrs, when I get to your age, I will be featured too".

Today was not the usual Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura day for me. I never stand from my seat from start to finish. I am an obedient member. I keep quiet and still until 7:30am. This morning at 6:30am I left the booth and stayed out and mingled with the visitors for Agrikapihan forum.

Listening to Zacess Stories had been a habit so when Zac's segment came up, I and Doc Rey kept quiet. It started with something vaguely about Sunshine Chicken....well...ok....so maybe he started the segment in jest, looking for us inside the booth?

Hmmmmm...oh no....we were his Zacess Story! Am so excited, pleased and awed...I run inside the office, right outside the technician's booth so I can listen. There is a PA outside, but there were people outside to entertain and you can't concentrate.

I joked Zac after that, he made no mention about profits gained, unlike his other Zacess Stories. Wahahahahhahha....Yes of course, the success story being portrayed is the hard work and perseverance in simple, earnest duties.

I thought I was the only one who wanted to shut off and listen....just found out now that Doc Rey himself went inside the car to listen to the radio :)

Garden To Benefit

I was glad that I paid attention to Zac Sarian's announcement today over the radio. During breakfast before Agri Kapihan, he talked about stalls open and if I wanted to get one....we can duplicate the alliance of Agrilink and we can go side by side :)

YES...sure! This will be an exciting garden show for us to explore and learn from the free seminars. Get schedule here.. "Gardening for a Better Environment"

While Zac and I were selecting our spots, some of our friends at Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura also got booths. We all laughed at us having a Friends' Pavilion :)

November 20-30, Quezon Memorial Circle, East Ave Gate. Near the restaurants and parking lot. I noted ingress at November 14...maybe that gives us more time there.

We will have the day old chicks, ready to slaughter, dressed Sunshines and our ready to eat products.

Free Consults

Mr Zac Sarian called to tell me that he is writing about "Free Consultations" from Doc Rey on free range chickens during Agrilink 2009.

I was thankful for his writing about Sunshines, but after the conversation I thought....we've always had free constultations, it wasn't like it will be only for Agrilink :)

But I learned something there...maybe its not common knowledge?

Yes, consulting Doc Rey on free range chicken raising is FREE. I think it is ok to say that he doesn't charge PF, because he is also open to being asked as Vet ng Bayan over DWWW's Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura.

Our seminars are also almost always FREE. Fairview's 4th Sundays seminars are PHP450, but that has 10 chicks and a CD. In provincial seminars, we charge a minimal fee to cover venue. Overall and more often, no charge, FREE :)

Play

It is when you are not doing anything, that you end up doing more :)

By 4:30am I was listening to Sa Kabukiran over DZMM 630khz, because a grower in Benguet, Jonathan was being interviewed. Read about a similar post the other day.

While driving, peeped on while Doc Rey was reading Bulletin and chanced upon our "ready to range" grower in Sinait, Ilocos Sur. My Tita Pilar's photo also got there because of her urban Lanzones tree. Immediately texted them about their nice smiles :)

By 6am we were off to AANI FTI to deliver chicks and man the booth. Breakfast was kambing cooked several ways and fresh Avocado shake. Before taking those calories, I had a stroll and got myself some cotton shirts that will be crumply packed in suitcases.

9am went to Antipolo so deliver some chicks and used the opportunity to visit AANI Urban Farm in Antipolo. For you in the area, this farm is perfect to visit and purchase your salad greens....really organic as it can get.

12noon saw us having Shabu Shabu at Bonifacio High Street with one of the boys. It was just a short walk from the parking lot to the resto but the heat was intense and penetrating. The son wanted to get some stuff from Nike.....I thought it was spelt as Yike! After sometime there, I was glad to leave the park....as it gets hotter inside Yike.

After getting some stickers from our car dealer, now in my table doing invoices for tomorrow's deliveries. Hectic Sunday tomorrow as KSA's Agrikapihan, Anniversary of KSA, and our monthly seminar. Used opportunity today to blog and breathe....

Radio Parties

Sure, today, 14th of December is the last weekend before the Christmas week. It follows that there were a lot of parties the week the passed, if you are a social butterfly....officemates, your partner's officemates, your friends, partner's friends, relatives, their relatives. Next weekend will be for the closer circle of friends and family :) Actually the week starts as the wedding day of a dear person :)

Today, we had two Christmas parties, both for radio programs. First on the agenda was the breakfast party of DWWW's KSA's (Kaularan sa Agrukultura) Agri Kapihan and then lunch at DZMM's TeleRadyo Sa Kabukiran.

Save for a handfull, the two parties had totally different crowds and listeners/audience base.

It is nice to have a face to texts that you receive from readers and listeners alike.

Vet Ng Bayan

Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura, a radio program heard over DWWW 774khz, every Sunday at 4:30-7:30am, hosted by Nina Manzanares-Agu, Tony Rola and Zac Sarian, has done some reformatting.

Doc Rey had been named by Nina as their Vet Ng Bayan and is set to tackle informative topics about farm animals, just like a school on the air.

Father

Today is Father's Day! May all the children now relish the times and memories of having a father. There are no good nor bad fathers. Just FATHERS...they always wish us the best.

Being a Sunday, we always have a trivia question for a contest to win 10 Sunshine Day Old Chicks over DWWW 774khz's Kalikasan Sa Agrikultura, 4:30-7:30 am.

I wanted something befitting the celebration...so it went: Sino ang tinitingala na tatay ng French colored chickens sa Pilipinas? Malaki ang pasasalamat ng kompanyang SASSO at Solraya sa kanya. (Who is looked up to as the father of French colored chickens in the Philippines? The companies SASSO and Solraya are very thankful to him).

The answers came in one after the other...fast! Anthony "Bobby" Inocencio is no doubt the father SASSO and Solraya refers to :)

Though Bobby is presently focused on something else, we always credit the initial awareness on the free range chicken to him. We hope to educated the people in line with what is proper, learning from Bobby, and not tire of explaining the difference of our F1 Sunshines from the proper Parent Stocks for breeding.

First Day At The Market

Yes, Sunshine dressed chickens are now at Market At The Hills.

I was up early to be at Market At The Hills by 5:30am, w/c was the time given by the organizers to set up your table.

Since I don't really need to set up anything, I was done in a few minutes. 2 roll up tarps, 1 cooler w/ wheels, 1 smaller one that acted as my utility table top, some brochures on the table and of course...my forever attention getter decors. Never failed! Not even in this foodie place.

People are asking why I got a booth. Its relaxing to just retail your baby product. My sister who visited me there asked also why I was alone..wehehehe I wanted to be by myself, any and all mistakes will be mine and won't be bothered by others' booboos. Toti Almeda of Milk Star Goat's Milk came by to check out the place. My friend Mitos was there too.

Product awareness was what I wanted to achieve in this booth. I didn't make a mistake as I was explaining to interested ears about the Sunshines. Happy with my day.....now looking forward to tomorrow, but I will miss so much the guys at Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura, moreso the Agri Kapihan at DWWW.

Yes, Chickens Get Heatstroke Too

Yesterday at the radio program Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura over DWWW 774, we ran a contest.

Nina Manzanares-Agu, the anchor, asked for 3 tips on what may be done to prevent heatstroke in this heat we are experiencing.

As usual, we got so many texts. But we were amused that we got many answers too that referred to what humans may do: like.. wear light materials for clothing, take showers often :)

I love Sundays there...so many things make us laugh!

We picked the most practical answer, but the winner didn't indicate name nor location. Before Nina announced the winning answers, we all laughed that surely a lot will claim to be winners. True enough! wehehhehehe The real winner texted me again long after, as we were having breakfast already. I was sure, because he used the same SIM card.

Talking about how people try to pull a fast one... Zac Sarian was whispering about how some people long ago (LONG AGO reads in caps because this is about STAMPS) would write the real recipient as sender and the real sender as the addressee in snail mails. Affix low value of stamps. What happens????? The letter gets "returned to sender"!!!

I had so much laugh at this...as in uncontrolled! I had to step out and just wait for the show to finish. The other techinicians outside thought I was crying....napuwing lang po. It was an easier reason rather than re-echo Zac's joke.

Hmmmm seems, experience also hones humor.

Agri Kapihan Mar2008

Agri Kapihans at DWWW774 are scheduled every 4th Sunday of the month. This month was moved to the last Sunday because last week fell on Easter Sunday.

We look forward to these events as its bonding time for the radio progam's hosts, listeners and friends.

Today's special guest was a speaker from BFAR Tanay who presented about Pangasius. People were interested as some stood up to approach his as soon as it was obvious he was preparing to leave :)

Touching was when a photocopy of Zac Sarian's article about a Sunshine grower was reproduced and given to the all the guests there. Mr. Rico wanted to make sure everyone read what TJ had done and he shared that article by distributing it.

Capon Capon Capon

If you follow Zac Sarian's columns in Manila Bulletin, Agriculture Magazine, Panorama and radio program Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura...you will by now believe that he is excited about the capons.

We were together for the weekend and I made a comment that it was like the Pacquiao bout, he can talk about it endlessly....described it as:

The Kobe beef of poultry

I was on the phone w/ Joey Rigor tonight and he will have his Sunshine Capons available at our booth for IFEX2008.

Liveweight in about 90days is about 5kilos, dressed at about 3.5kilos. He is thinking about growing it to the standards of 7kilos.

We didn't get any of the 1st batch as it was reserved even before it was dressed.

Have you seen a caponed chicken? Small head, very huge round body, small wattle.

Next batch is available in mid May...perfect timing to show it during IFEX Philippines.

Sunshine Breeders Welcomed Zac Sarian

In my excitement about planning the farm visits to the different Sunshine growers, as Zac Sarian wanted to interview and write about them, I forgot to post about his visit to our breeder farm!

Of course, how can he have the interest on the entrepreneurship side of the growers if he wasn't introduced to the breeders.

We first met Zac at the the opening day of Agrilink 2007. After the ribbon was cut and the public was allowed in, a man approached me and said I should take a look at the photo in that day's Manila Bulletin, the page announcing the start of Agrilink 2007. He handed me a copy of the paper, introduced himself and said he will contact us for an interview.

In last Sunday's Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura, DWWW 774, and after the regular breakfast to have small talk with the KSA family, we went to where the Sunshine breeders were.


He visited our two batches of breeders and hatchery. The 1st batch is the one producing the Sunshine F1s now and the 2nd batch of breeders that replaces 1st batch. The 3rd batch is already on the planning stage.

It was over lunch of super tasting Sinampalukang Manok, Adobong Manok, Inihaw na Tilapia and Bangus and Ensalada, that it was brought up that he wanted to visit the growers too, not just limited to Luzon but also in Vismin.

On the drive back to Manila, that was when I thought about farm visit number #1.

Remember The Sunshine Capons?

Just before the 2nd INAHGEN, Zac Sarian asked us during the regular KSA radio program over DWWW 774khz, if we had a grower who did capons.

We did, and we blogged about him days before that.

Zac Sarian asked me again when he visited INHAGEN. Good timing, Joey Rigor was on his way to the event as we were talking.

Have you read Manila Bulletin yesterday?

Agri Kapihan Feb 2008

Every 4th Sunday of the month is a reunion of some sorts.

Agri Kapihan at the courtyard of DWWW 774khz, is open to all listeners and friends of Kabuhayan sa Agrikultura.

During the regular Kabuhayan sa Agrikultura, there was a question to us and the discussion drifted to capon Sunshines when Zac Sarian asked about supply.

Was I glad I had a ready answer that Joey Rigor of Victoria, Tarlac has Sunshine Capons available. Zac was very interested and asked me to set up farm visit to Joey's farm.

We thought that yesterday will be quiet because of the the weather, but that didn't dampen the listener's urge to go and participate.

You are able to speak up one on one with the resource speakers you want to, and refer to them your problems re: agriculture.

Several listeners bring their produce to sell: seedlings, trees, fruits, pastries, herbs etc

Nina is back after her maternity leave :)

Agri-Kapihan Jan 2008

Last Sunday saw us at the Agri-Kapihan, held every 4th Sunday of the month at DWWW 774khz's Courtyard.

Of course the Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura family was there to give support to the show's hosts: Tony Rola, Nina Manzanares-Agu (still on maternity leave) and Zac Sarian.

If you've never been to one, come and join us. You will be able to meet up with the speakers on the topic that interests you, upfront. It turns out to be a more personal seminars.

So nice when people come up and say how they enjoyed their Sunshines for the Christmas dinners and now were making purchases again for their backyards.

What's The Schedule For The Next Days?

If you want to catch us...see how we can fit in the meeting. Please feel free to pop up at AANI Circle, as we will be there most of the time to entertain inquiries.

Friday:
10am - Meeting with the farm vet of a Visayas client
Late afternoon will see us preparing for deliveries of the day's hatch.

Saturday:
10am - Meeting with PR team

Sunday:
4:30-7:30am - "Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura", DWWW 774 khz
8-11am - "Agri Kapihan", Courtyard of DWWW, 23 E Rodriguez near D. Tuazon, QC
2pm - We scheduled to drive to Pampanga to meet up with the dealers

Biogas For Home

PHP12,000 for the system...perfect for home, for use in place of LPG.

Been toying with the idea of recycling and Biogas.....but the procrastinator in me, still has no recycled matter from what is readily abundant...chicken manure.

Ka Pio's Biogas booth is a stone's throw away from us, we are together during the radio program on Sundays.... there is no reason not to have it.

This is Ka Pio's DO GOOD TO MANKIND. The know-how, labor and materials are more than what he is asking for.

Listen to him during Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura over DWWW 774, 4:30-7:30, aired every Sunday.

Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura

We had been absent for sometime during the Sunday, Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura of DWWW 774.

Today, as I was driving to DWWW, I mentioned to Doc Rey..... "feels like going home"!

Nina is still on maternity leave. Zac, the bunso, is sick (kulang sa Chakara tea).

It was Ka Pio's bday. But birthday or not, the group is always in a jolly and eating mood. The best parts are during station IDs when everyone engages in small talks.

The EDSA Garden House team was there, Pearl and Adela. Guest for today was Dir Adora of BFAR who talked about Mariculture Parks.

I took photos from where I was sitting. Note that the food was on our side :)

The first run of our info-ads for national radio was done today.

Raising and Cooking Sunshines

During the Christmas Agri Kapihan Forum on December 16, 2007, two (2) seminars have been lined up:

1) How To Raise Your Sunshines From Day1 To Harvest - by Doc Rey

2) Cooking Demonstrations by Chef Bert Clemenia of De La Salle Culinary Arts

See you there!

FREE, no fees collected.

Great time to meet the Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura and AANI family, led by Zac Sarian, Tony Rola, Nina Manzanares-Agu and Eng. Pol Rubia.

1st Day Of The Month

We are more relaxed when we moved hatchings to Fridays. That means, the invoicing and preparation are done late Friday while the Sunshines are being transported from hatchery to our base in Manila. Drivers are off to destinations and airport all at one time and pick up of growers and dealers are set for Friday night.

We get to have a comfortable sleep and wake up well for our separate AANI assignments. Rested again for the Sunday, early Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura of DWWW 774.

Today as usual, saw me at AANI FTI. It could have been a regular day for me, except that I had a very interesting talk with a group of three men who bought 10 chicks, 2weeks ago.

As you will gather eventually after knowing me more, numbers is not an issue to me. I get more passionate on a 10chick sale from an interested group rather than a sale of 3000 from a disinterested party.

They were so eager to learn and discuss "what ifs and what may bes". Our conversation went from politics to religion (AANI FTI is neighbor to the Maharlika Village of the Muslim Community) and led to Halal Chicken.

That scenario about starting with 10chicks, brooding them like babies, practicing before going on a bigger scale made me remember Farmer TJ's beginnings :)

Yes, that is the way to go. Start with a comfortable number and learn from the small mistakes.

Gave me another reason to credit Sunshine talk for the educating morning I had.