[ Manila Bulletin Online ] February 8, 2009
By MELODY M. AGUIBA
A top-notch slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant are planned to be put up in the buffalo crossbred-rich town of San Agustin in Isabela to capitalize on its potential as Region 2’s buffalo milk capital.
Already, San Agustin boasts of almost 1,000-head buffalo crossbred inventory which may be the biggest of its crossbred size in a province in all of the Philippines.
But to further enhance dairy enterprise development in San Agustin, the processing center will be a requirement in order to meet growing milk production there. There is also a need to produce more superior crossbreds with a higher Murrah blood genetics of as much as 87.5 percent compared to only 50 percent at present.
Murrah breeds are responsible for improved quality in dairy buffaloes as Murrahs generate a higher volume of dairy production.
Source of financing for the planned improvement in the San Agustin dairy enterprise has yet to be determined. However, the local government units (LGUs) of the province has extended funding support for previous dairy investments.
This includes a P500,000 fund from Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca for the crossbred program while PCC has extended a loan to the San Agustin municipal government in the form of 17 purebred Murrah buffalo bulls which were distributed to farmers.
"This resource, if continuously nurtured, will gain for the municipality the reputation of being the province’s buffalo milk capital," said San Agustin Mayor Virgilio A. Padilla in a statement.
The municipality has begun gaining such stock since a crossbred buffalo management training program for crossbred buffalo owners was conducted in 2001 by the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC). Only 72 crossbred buffalo owners then attended the PCC training at the Cagayan State University in Piat, Cagayan.
A total of 52 more farmers attended that same training in 2006, contributing further to crossbred growth in San Agustin.
PCC also trained three technicians in San Agustin on artificial insemination (AI) and pregnancy diagnosis in carabaos which are important in carabao breeding. PCC likewise funded the technicians’ supply of AI kit, liquid nitrogen field tanks, and frozen buffalo semen.
The need for semen of these technicians is also being met by the semen processing laboratory which made up for the lack of frozen semen needed for PCC’s carabao upgrading program.
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