Gamefowl Breeding: A peek at Bacolod 's other chicken
Bacolod City -- Why did the chicken cross the street?
Certainly not to be roasted, not yet anyway, but to seek perhaps its own arena and fight the way of the ancient gladiators-- as good bred cocks are meant to be. And even as this is frowned upon by some, its association with Filipino culture has given the gamefowl industry an anchor to assert itself as a legitimate industry. Thus, from its pre-Spanish beginnings, this "other chicken industry" had now grown beyond the backyard into a fully developed multi-billion peso business.
Based on quarantine records of the Provincial Veterinary Office of Negros Occidental, about 140,000 heads of gamefowl are being shipped out of the province annually. At an average price of P4,000 per head, that's about P558 million or half a billion pesos worth of this chicken crossing the Visayan seas to be bred or pitted elsewhere. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
This figure would balloon many times more if we count in the other gamefowl bred and sold in other provinces as well as the value of collateral businesses. This includes the smallest supplier of gaffs and knives, feeding cups, scratch pen, and cords to the biggest manufacturer of agro-veterinary products, both local and multi-national companies. Industry insiders estimate that at any given time, the country has about 10 million stags being conditioned to fight or ready for breeding.
Why Negros ?
In the Philippines , the province of Negros Occidental is the virtual mecca of gamefowl breeding. "This is because Negros came in first in the industry," says former La Carlota City Mayor Juancho Aguirre, president of the Negros Gamefowl Breeders Association (NGBA). "Being so, it is here where the expertise in gamefowl breeding was developed. And it takes a lot of patience and money to breed good chickens." he said.
One of the country's more successful breeder who had been in the business the last 30 years, Aguirre enthuse, that one has to love the sport to be able to breed good chickens. "If you don't love what you're doing, you can not produce good chicken," he said. And by that he meant, a gamefowl that can "kill its opponent the fastest time possible." To achieve that is each breeder's secret but all told, a good breed stems from a good bloodline enhanced by proper training and conditioning. Thus, it were the many gamefowl farms in Negros that literally became the laboratory for breeding this kind of chicken.
Aguirre says gamefowl breeding dwells well with the physical characteristics of the area. Its mountainous parts and vast rolling hills provide a perfect home for the birds.
Negros being also the country's sugar base, there are those who took to gamefowl breeding as a hobby while waiting for the long months that their sugarcane will mature. This hobby developed into something more when the people's skills evolved and the potential for it to be another source of income and employment became more evident.
With the boom in the sugar industry then, it is very likely that the wealth that made barons out of sugar planters is the same money stream that sustained this capital intensive "hobby." For who else could afford to import gamefowl from the US and then breed and cross breed them here?
In time, gamefowl enthusiasts and breeders would get their brood from Negros Occidental and very often bring along to their farms a local handler or trainer. Others buy farms in the area and set up base right at the mecca. And soon enough even agro veterinary companies took special interest in the evolving gamefowl industry in this province setting up their depot even feedmills here. Multi-national companies even developed feeds and other formulas carrying a Filipino tag as distinct as the "labuyo".
Today, thousands of gamefowl breeders have sprung across the country. Breeders have also formed associations and confederated into national organizations such as the National Federation of Gamefowl Breeders. This federation alone counts a long list of member organizations one of which is the NGBA.
What Breeds?
One of four species believed to be the forebear of today's gamecock is the Red Jungle Fowl or Labuyo. These birds are endemic in Asia including the Philippines . Stories of old says that the Filipino's penchant for cockfighting is traced to its discovery that this type of chicken can do a little more before landing on the dinning table. And so we were told that cockfighting had already been a past time of Filipinos way before the Spaniards came into the country.
Today's gamecock however is already the product of science and local ingenuity. When Aguirre ventured into gamefowl breeding for instance, he went to the United States to buy his first "trio." This is composed of two hens and a cock. These were bred and cross bred with other bloodlines or with the same bloodline to produce a much better fighter than its predecessor. Normally, the birds displaying good fighting characteristics are further propagated or cross bred with another blood line, but those found to be losers in the pit are culled to prevent further losses.
Aguirre made quite a name in breeding Duke Hulsey Lemons and Greys. These are two imported bloodlines he was able to propagate locally. From these, Aguirre experimented in cross breeding. With his Duke Hulsey Lemon he was able to produce a hit he called the "lemon gwapo" but as to what he cross bred this Hulsey with is the secret of his trade.
Art & Science of Breeding
Speed, cutting accuracy, intelligence, gameness, power and good health are standards that determine a good breed. But the only way to put to test these qualities is in the cockpit. To make sure that the breed will be successful as a mature fighting cock, he usually joins stag-derbies. A stag, a young fighting cock aged 6 to 11 months old is usually ready for the pits at 8 to 9 months. The bird is prepared for the fight right after it comes from the range at about 6 months of age. The conditioning stage starts by delousing and deworming the bird. The feeds is also changed to one that has more protein to develop the bird's muscles. Walking, flying and running exercises are also employed through controlled conditions such as the cord walk where the bird is tied to a cord a meter in length beside a teepee or a shaded area under a tree. Running and flying is limited to a roost or a flypen that is 4 feet wide, 8 feet long and 10 feet high.
There too is the scratch pen meant to exercise the bird's claws. It is a 3x3x3 feet enclosure with materials for the bird to scratch on. In summer, only light scratching is recommended thus materials are usually dried banana leaves. During the cold months the bird will have corn shacks as scratch materials or hay as an in between.
At some point, the bird is made to fight with another chicken. This is called sparring to test the birds fighting ability. If he shows all the fighting qualities aforementioned, then he is usually selected as a candidate to the pits. There is so much more that goes into this. Aside from breeding a bird with good fighting genes and conditioning them with physical and mental exercises, nutritious feed, vitamins and minerals are also included in their diet. In sum, a good bird is a product of the art and science of breeding, that is both genetic and environmental.
So why all the fuss and caring for a bird and have it pitted to die? Aguirre says "that's what makes it a sport. The best of the good birds survive."
Collateral businesses
As this is done, so too evolves spin off businesses to cater the breeding requirements. Producers of feeds for instance have different concoctions for each stage of development: a chick booster for day old to a month, stag developer for 1 to 4 months, enhancers for 4 to 6 months and conditioner pellets for 6 months and beyond.
There are as varied types of dewormers as there are a dozen other vitamins and protein supplements. There are also egg incubators and scales developed with the gamefowl in mind. Then too, backyard smith or panday who used to pound steel to produce gaffs and knives (tari) have been replaced by branded producers.
Recently too, digital technology caught up with the industry. Now there are digital thermometers and hygrometers developed to measure the temperature and moisture level of the chicken and even the cockhouse where the chicken stay while awaiting their turn to fight.
Microchip ID's have also been developed and imbedded into the bird in lieu of the traditional ring or wing band for identification.
At the cockpit, the bird is the commodity. A winner creates a name brand for the breeder. Consistency of their breed is noted as they bring out more winners and from here the multi-million business cycle continues.
As for Negros, more than its inasal, it is this other chicken too that brings the moneyed lot to the area to find the good bird-- to breed, crossbreed, fight at the pits and breed again, -- as it had been through the years.