The Development of Betong Chicken Production for Commerce in Klong Hoi Kong District, Songkhla Province

Abstract

This study has two sections. The first section was to test the feasibility of Betong chicken under farmer (Khlong Hoi Khong District, Songkhla Province) and intensive management. Under farmers management (7 farmers), 30 Betong chicken at one week of age were raised. The chickens were fed 21% of protein throughout experiment. Feed and water were given ad libitum. The results were shown that production performance (final weight, average daily gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio) under farmer management were significantly (P <0.05) lower than intensive management, all periods (7-60, 60 - 120, and 7 - 120 days). These results were indicated that Betong chicken’s performances under farmer management were lower than their potential performances. In order to extend Betong chicken, knowledge of management, feed and water should be promoted to succeed the project. The areas in this study were Hat Yai district and Muang Songkhla district. The methods of the study were 200 personal questionnaires and 20 cases for interviewing consumer and Hainanese chicken rice (HCR) sellers, respectively. The results were shown that the reasons for decision to buy HCR were flavor/taste of HCR (92.96%) followed by the cleanliness (59.15%), eatable (57.04%), and famous (40.85%), respectively. Consumers did not know Betong chicken (46.74%) high proportion and acceptable if price HCR increasing 10 -20% in case using Betong chicken for cooking. HCR vendors used indigenous chickens (50%), broiler (33.33%), and both types (16.67%) for cooking. Weight of chicken demand average 2.79 ± 0.26 kg/chicken, and each shop demanded 9.10 ± 3.15 chicken/day. Some HCR vendors did not know Betong chicken (25%). If use Betong chicken to cook HCR, they thought customers were looking to buy it. The reasonable price Betong chicken was 133.33 ± 5.37 baht/kg.