Agriculture Business Week

The province of Nueva Ecija is widely recognized as a rice granary, but some farmers now prefer to raise dairy carabaos rather than grow rice. Several farmers in Barangay Calabalabaan, Science City of Munoz, reason out that they derive more income from dairy farming than from rice production, as their farms are rainfed and rice is grown only once a year.

Take Marites, 31, and Danilo Avila, 39, who used to cultivate one hectare of rainfed farm for rice production. Although they don’t have any child, their income from growing rice was barely enough for both of them.

Marites even had to raise two swine fatteners every four months so that they would have cash to buy farm inputs. Her income from the fatteners, however, was very minimal because of the high cost of production. In addition to the cost of two piglets, P2,400, she also had to buy feeds. And yet she sold the pigs at only P4,000 each.

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Posted on August 31st, 2012 under Livestock, Rice. Tags: Carabao, Farmer, Rice, Ricefed. Comments: 1

It’s richer, creamier and contains protein, fat, lactose, vitamins and minerals, and water. But there’s more!

During the height of the milk crisis caused by melamine contamination of dairy products from China, the sales of carabao’s milk from the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) at the Science City of Munoz soared.

“The melamine scare could be one of the reasons for the increased demand for our milk and milk products,” said Mina Padilla-Abella, in-charge of the PCC’s milk processing unit located at the Central Luzon State University.

What most Filipinos don’t know is that carabao’s milk is touted to be the “most complete food.” The reason: it contains protein, fat, lactose, vitamins and minerals, and water. In addition, carabao’s milk is richer and creamier compared to cow’s and goat’s milk due to its high percentage of milk fat which is a good source of energy.

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Posted on June 10th, 2010 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao, Dairy, Milk. Comments: 8

Manila, Philippines – Long enslaved to the plow, the sturdy carabao has been freed from its yoke by advances in technology.

The two-wheeled hand tractor, known among farmers as “kuliglig,” has taken over its job.

Thanks to farm mechanization and the dollar remittances that gave farming families the means to buy the hand tractor, the carabao has lost its traditional job.

Like the carriage-pulling horse in the West made irrelevant by the automobile, the carabao has been replaced by the more efficient machine that can plow one hectare in one day, a job that used to take five carabaos and five farmers to accomplish.

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Posted on September 24th, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao, Cow, Dairy, Milk. Comments: None

The Philippine Carabao Center(PCC) celebrated its 14th anniversary last March 30 and honored its most outstanding center and employee as well as the country’s best dairy farmer, dairy coop, and dairy carabao of the year.

PCC at UP Los Banos and Rosalina M. Lapitan were singled out as the most outstanding center and employee, respectively. Other awardees are Anastacio Millar of Tulong, Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, best dairy farmer; Aglipay Dairy Producers Cooperative in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, best dairy co-op; and a carabao of Venus Eduarte of San Jose City, best dairy cow. The all-women Angat Buhay Producers Multi-Purpose Cooperative was conferred the Hall of Fame after being the best dairy co-op in the last three years.

Led by its director, Dr. Arnel del Barrio, PCC at UPLB maintains impact zones in Laguna and Cavite, covering 11 municipalities and cities. In collaboration with the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College, Department of Agriculture regional field unit, office of the provincial veterinarian, and local government units, PCC implements the carabao upgrading program through estrus synchronization and artificial insemination in 43 municipalities and cities in Region 4, and 7 municipalities in Region 5.

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Posted on July 14th, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao, Dairy, Philippine Carabao Center. Comments: None

In a triumphal end to a challenging year, PCARRD’s partners in livestock R&D made the news for their outstanding performance in knowledge generation, technology transfer and research management and governance.

Leading the pack is this year’s recipient of the PCARRD Tanglaw Award – the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) based in Munoz, Nueva Ecija. The Tanglaw Award recognizes an institution for generating new knowledge, promoting science, grounding initiatives in partnership with local and foreign agencies, disseminating technology and creating livelihood. The PCC received the award during PCARRD’s 36th Anniversary Celebration on November 7 at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati city.

The Center is credited with the carabaos increased body size and mill, production and the dissemination of good breeder animals. As a research agency under the Department of Agriculture, it led high-end livestock research focusing on reproductive biotechnology to increase the genetic quality of breeding animals.

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Posted on April 27th, 2009 under Livestock, Technology. Tags: Carabao, PCCARD, Technology. Comments: None

Towards the end of the last century, the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) launched its Carabao Development Program to improve the productivity and income of dairy farmers. The program’s ultimate focus is the establishment of village-based buffalo dairy enterprises.

Since the PCC established its national headquarters in Nueva Ecija, the PCC and the Nueva Ecija provincial government through then Gov. Tomas N. Joson III agreed in 1998 to develop the province as the national impact zone (NIZ) for dairy buffalo development.

The NIZ project aims to showcase and demonstrate cooperative-led dairy enterprises in the production and marketing of good quality buffalo dairy products from quality breeder animals managed by dairy farmers in a traditionally non-dairying community. It involves the provision of 25 dairy buffalo modules (consisting of 25 head of female and 1 male Murrah buffalos) as loans to partner cooperatives.

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Posted on January 7th, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Buffalo, Carabao, Dairy, Milk, Nueva Ecija, Water Buffalo. Comments: None

San Agustin, an interior town in Isabela, may look like a sleepy town that has yet to have economic and social development, but this fourth class town is the only place in the country where you can find an aggregate of about 600 mestizo buffalos, or Murrah buffalo upgraded carabaos.

Established on September 28, 1949, San Agustin was actually carved from the southern part of Jones town which was originally part of Echague. As of 2005, – this town located at the crossroads of the provinces of Isabela, Quirino, Aurora, and Quezon is comprised of 23 barangays and has 22,228 residents who are mostly Ilocanos.

Carabao upgrading in San Agustin started through artificial insemination (AI) and later through natural mating.
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Posted on December 21st, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Buffalos, Carabao. Comments: None

Few young men would volunteer to help in a national program, especially when there’s only a little support from the program implementers.

Despite the limited support, 32-year-old Cornelio Agustin of Brgy. Kinalangoyan, Talavera, Nueva Ecija, has become one of the few artificial insemination (Al) volunteers in the country who have made a significant contribution to the promotion of AI among our farmers.

He was one of the million Filipinos who were forced to drop out of school due to financial constraints. He was only a second year civil engineering student of a small college in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija when he had no choice but to go back to the farm.

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Posted on December 2nd, 2008 under Livestock, Technology. Tags: Artificial Insemination, Carabao, Water Buffalo. Comments: 11

fter successfully fertilizing water buffalo oocytes, or not fully developed eggs, into embryos, livestock biotechnology researchers of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) have found that several factors influence meiotic competence and developmental potential of the oocytes.

Meiotic competence is the capability of the oocyte to mature under incubator or in vitro condition so that it can be successfully fertilized, while development potential is the capability of the oocyte to develop into a blastocyst or an embryo that is ready for transfer to recipient animals.

The study was conducted by Danilda H. Duran, Dr. Peregrino G. Duran, Dr. Eufrocina P. Atabay, Dr. Edwin C. Atabay and Dr. Libertado C. Cruz with the collaboration of Japanese biotechnologists Dr. Y. Takahashi and Dr. Y. Kanai at the PCC Satellite Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory in India and at the PCC headquarter in Nueva Ecija.

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Posted on November 30th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao, Water Buffalo. Comments: None

Slowly but surely, the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is making significant breakthroughs in biotechnology research as it is now developing cloning by nuclear transfer techniques for the production and multiplication of super buffalos with extremely high milk and meat production performance.

In a book that is expected to be launched early next year by the national carabao center, PCC Executive Director Dr. Libertado C. Cruz emphasized that the 17 years of painstaking efforts have already been exerted to reach this stage of development. There were obstacles along the way but the hardship was compensated by the significant results obtained by the Center’s biotechnology research team.

It all started in 1990 during the time of Philippine Carabao Research and Development Center (PCRDC), the predecessor of PCC, when the development of reproductive biotechnology techniques as tool for genetic improvement was conceptualized.

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Posted on November 29th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao. Comments: 2

Sometime in 2005, I was in Bukidnon to gather data for my book, “Changing Lives … Beyond the Draft Carabao”. One of the things that impressed me then on the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) at Central Mindanao University (CMU) was a sales outlet located along the highway. In fact, the center director then, now retired Prof. Rosendo Anacleto, was very proud about it because his headaches on the marketing of milk produced by the center was already solved.

The sales outlet had a good number of refrigerators and freezers filled with milk products from pasteurized milk to white cheese to yogurt. Motorists usually stopped at the sales outlet to pick a number of items. They could easily park their vehicles at the spacious parking area. All that the buyers needed to do was to go through the line of refrigerators and freezers to pick what they needed and pay at the end of the line. But that was the past, and the present situation is now entirely different.

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Posted on October 18th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao. Comments: None

A quick look at this endangered animal is enough to convince us that even in this age of highly mechanized farming, the carabao still has a lot to offer in terms of business opportunities.

The Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has listed tamaraw under Appendix I, which means that “the trade of species of subspecies” of the animal is “strictly prohibited” except for educational, scientific or research and study purposes.

After the tamaraw, what Philippine animal is most likely to make it to the CITES list? The carabao, that’s what The Filipino’s beast of burden, forced out from the farm by mechanized farming, is now being pushed to extinction.

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Posted on July 31st, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao. Comments: 10

With the Carabao or Buffalo as a source of milk, the introduction of dairying in the Philippines is like an attempt to introduce dairying in a foreign land, as the carabao in many places was never used as a dairy animal.

The numerous experiences of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) indicate that with strong determination, farmers who see the bright prospects of carabao dairying have persevered and succeeded.

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Posted on July 7th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Buffalo, Carabao. Comments: 3

One of the important programs of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is the improvement of the genetic makeup of the carabao to increase its potentials to produce meat and milk without affecting its capability as a draft animal.

Long before PCC was established, the need to conserve the Philippine carabao was already a raging issue. Because of the introduction of the dairy buffalo in the country, some people were afraid that the Philippine germplasm may be lost during the crossing process.

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Posted on June 28th, 2008 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao. Comments: 1