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Large-Scale Goat Raising in Tarlac Shows the Way
By pinoyfarmer | July 10, 2007
For ANGIE MENDOZA of Tarlac, City, goat raising started as a way of making a 3.5-hectare mango farm productive during its early gestation period when the trees are not yet bearing.
Today, she has no less than 260 heads already, most of which are does, and yet she intends to have at least 200 does in her farm. This is because she found that indeed there is a good amount of money in large-scale goat production.
In a paper presented during the Second Small Ruminant Congress at the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) last March, Angie narrated in Filipino how she and a business partner went into large-scale goat raising, saying they already recovered their initial investments on this venture. She said a 3.5-hectare farm in the mountainous portion of
While they were searching for ways of making the farm productive while waiting for the mango trees to bear fruit, a priest, who was a family friend, suggested that the most practical thing to do is to raise goats. “We were told that goat raising does not incur much expenses because the animals are not very delicate and they survive on grasses,” Angie said.
They started with a pair of Anglo Nubian doe and buck, which they bought from Rodinel Wong of
“We were able to buy many goats this way,” she said.
She added they were able to increase their purebred breeding animals last year by importing the Kiko breed from
Most of their present stock,however, consist of upgraded does, which they bought from local raisers. The other does are offspring of their stock.
Of the more than 260 head that they had at the time of the goat congress, 180 upgraded does and their offspring were in the farm in
TRIALS AND ERRORS
Angie revealed that they went through a host of trials and errors as they increased their stock and learned to raise goats.
For instance, she said the first house they made for their animals was made of cement and steel, thinking that durability is most important. “We found out that what is most important is sanitation because it is bad for the animals to step and sleep on their wastes,” she said.
They also learned that the flooring must be elevated and has holes so that the wastes could pass through them. Now their new goat houses are made mostly of cheap, locally available materials like bamboo, coco lumber and sawali. It’s only the flooring that incurs considerable expense because it is made of plastic, which is better than wood. It is much easier to clean and dry, hence the animals are free from diseases.
Although they had great difficulty keeping their animals healthy at the start, they soon learned to cure health problems like scouring, colds, coughing and internal parasitic worms with the help of veterinarians and specialists of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and CLSU.
PRACTICES
In
The doe and her offspring stay in the pen for two weeks after giving birth to make sure the kid is able to suck milk from the mother.
There is a separate house where they keep their doelings. They stay there until they become one year old. Then they transfer the doeling to the main building when she has been bred already.
The bucks are also kept in a separate house where each of them is in an individual pen. They bring the does to the bucks for controlled mating.
To keep their animals healthy, they deworm every three months during the dry season and every other month during wet season. The animals were also given vitamin injections once in a while. Most of the time, the caretakers now perform deworming and vitamin injections as taught to them by BAI and CLSU veterinarians.
The goats in the
However, the bucks and does that have kidded only recently as well as the sick animals are given cut grasses in their pens.
The goats are fed early in the morning. Each goat is given 100 grams of feeds, using a small can of sardines for measurement.
Angie said that although they can get grasses from some places at the moment, they are also going to improve their pasture and forage production through the help of specialists from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). This way they will be assured that if the present pasture areas and sources of grasses will be gone in the future, they will have their own source.
The wastes of the goats are dried and then placed around the mango tree as organic fertilizer. The rest are applied as organic fertilizer in their four-hectare rice farm in Batang-batang.
MARKETING
Angie said that hey have no problem in marketing their goats at the moment because the 15 members of the Goat and Sheep Producers Association of Tarlac, Inc., which she heads as president, help each other in the marketing aspect.
She said there have been only a few instances when prospective buyers went home without having bought some animals from them. If one of the members does not have the kind of goat the customers are looking for, the customers are referred to the other members.
The members of the association have adopted a uniform pricing scheme. For instance, a four-month old purebred Boer is sold at P20,000, while a four-month old purebred Anglo Nubian is sold at P8,000.
On the other hand, upgrade (75 percent Boer and 25 percent Anglo Nubian buckling) is sold at P6,500, while the price for doeling of the same percentage is negotiable. The prices for 50 percent doeling upgrades are as follows: Boer, P5,000; Anglo Nubian, P4,000.
Angie said they disperse their 50% Boer and Anglo Nubian bucklings to backyard goat raisers in their barangay. An eight- to 10-month old buckling is exchanged for two native doelings or five cavans of palay. Cash buyers may get it at P100 a kilo liveweight.
However, Angie said they still keep most of the female offspring of their stock as they intend to have 200 does in the farm.
ASSISTANCE
Angie added they owe their success to a number of people and the first small ruminant congress last year where they learned a lot of things, got to know other raisers, and established their linkages with public and private agencies. Since then technical assistance from several agencies have been forthcoming.
For instance, they benefited from the field trial of the artificial insemination program of the Bureau of Animal Industry. They also got bucks from the bureau.
The Small Ruminants Center (SCR) of CLSU has also helped them a lot. Angie narrated that at one time, one of their does had difficulty in kidding. Through the cellphone, Dr. Emilio Cruz of the SRC instructed them step by step on what to do and the kid came out fine.
She added that through the Livestock Development Council, headed by Pete Ocampo, the Road Map of the Goat Industry, which they prepared, reached Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo.
PCARRD will also assist them in establishing the forage and pasture area of their farm.
Angie is optimistic of a bright future for the goat industry based on the fact that she has already recovered the initial capitalization of their goat farm.
In Tarlac alone, she said, there are now a good number of restaurants serving goat menus. In addition, there is a good demand for goats by Muslims.
Although more and more people are also getting interested in goat raising, the present supply is still not enough to meet the demand, especially during Christmas, fiestas, graduations, and other important occasions.
For more information, please call, text or write Angie at tel no. (045)9825148,
CP no. 09204180788, or angie109@yahoo.com.
Source: Philippine Goat Raisers
Topics: Livestock |
September 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Looking for forsale BOER and anglo nubian in Nuev ecija or nearby provice