I was going over materials in my library that may need to be discarded already and I found this paper presented by Dr. Florentino Librero, a former UP Los Banos professor and the first director of the Philippine Farmers Training Institute that was based at UPLB.
Dr. Librero now raises at least 100 sheep in his 9-hectare orchard in Lipa City, which is planted with coffee, mango, rambutan, jackfruit, citrus, pomelo and black pepper. He raises sheep for the control of weeds since it is a “natural ground feeder.”
He started raising sheep_ in 1990 as a recipient of the paiwi project of UPLB and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). Because of this, he was able to reduce his labor force for cutting down the weeds from six to only two, enabling him to save a considerable amount. At the time when he presented the paper, he was paying P100 a day per grass cutter and. hence, he was saving P400 a day. Assuming that four days were needed to keep the weeds down, then he was saving P1,600 a month or P19,200 a year. Under.the present rate, he is surely saving much more.
He maintains 100 animals in his farm and sells the excess. He uses some of the proceeds for the concentrate and medicine given to the animals. More than this, the weeds, which used to be his problem, are now being used for productive purposes. The farm is now clean compared to the six years before he started to raise sheep.
“Compared with six grass cutters. the sheep are more effective in keeping the weeds down,” he said. In fact, the animals continue to mow the field even at night when the moon is bright.
To prevent the animals from destroying the trees in his orchard, he has divided the farm into paddocks based on the kind of trees, using hog wire as fence. The animals are transferred every week from one paddock to another to avoid overgrazing and allow the weeds to regrow.
He also stores corn stovers for use during the summer months. Likewise, he discovered that sheep relish acacia pods probably because these are sweet like muscovado. Thus, he allows the sheep to feed on fallen acacia pods.
He also built a house for the animals where they are protected from the elements during cold nights and hot days. It is here where the animals are given concentrate, salt and water. He used materials available in the farm for the construction of the animal house such as cogon for the roofing, bamboo for the walls, cacao trunks for the posts, and acacia slabs for the flooring.
He noted, however, that the animals prefer to stay under the trees where they sometimes kid or deliver their young, which he said is not so delicate as he has not yet experienced any mortality. He found out that newborn sheep can easily adjust to their environment since they are already up about one hour after delivery.
His sheep deliver twice a year, mostly twins. Because of this, he is encouraged all the more to raise sheep.
Except for scouring (pagtatae) because of internal parasites, which he said is easy to cure with antihelminthics, he has not yet experienced any serious ailment among his animals. He needs to give medicine to his animals because he has experienced 8 to 10 percent mortality during the wet season.
On the whole, Dr. Librero learned three important things in raising sheep:
1. Take time to learn about the animals you are raising.
2. Take note of the local environment and its effects on the animals.
3. More importantly, you must know your own capacity especially the love and care that you can give to your animals.
Posted on November 9th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Sheep. Comments: None
