PCC’s Dairy Herd Improvement Program strengthening improved practices in NIZ Oct 2015 R4D Highlights Research, feeding By Chrissalyn Marcelo Through its Dairy Herd Improvement Program (DHIP), the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is helping much its dairy farmer- partners and dairy cooperatives in Nueva Ecija in strengthening their animal husbandry practices as it also helps improve and increase their dairy herd. A dairy farmer in San Jose, Nueva Ecija feeds his purebred buffaloes with grasses. The DHIP was set-up in 2013 as a program designed specifically to help the farmers in the National Impact Zone (NIZ) to adopt various technologies of the PCC in buffalo management. It serves as a valuable tool in evaluating as a whole the progress of the carabao-based dairy enterprise in Nueva Ecija and the performance of the dairy herd in the province. It also targets to create a progressive, profitable and sustainable carabao-based dairy industry in the NIZ and replicate it in other parts of the country in due time. The DHIP is designed to capacitate the partners of PCC on the knowledge and skills in buffalo husbandry and breeding management. These partners involved the farmers, village-based artificial insemination technicians (VBAIT’s), local government units (LGU, Provincial Veterinarian Officers (PVO), among others. Five- year Plan DHIP designed a five- year plan to pursue. In 2013, the team of Dr. Peregrino Duran, project leader of the DHI at NIZ, conducted an evaluation to know the status of the following: (1) present number of herds in the NIZ, (2) animal productivity of the buffaloes, (3) technology adoption by the farmers regarding buffalo management, (4) dairy enterprise in the NIZ, (5) NIZ program management, and (6) partners of the PCC in the dairy industry. Based on the initial results of the evaluation, the DHIP documented the following: (1) the breedable animals in the NIZ were 2,239 out of its total population of 3,025 dairy buffaloes; (2) the dairy buffaloes in the NIZ had low productivity in terms of its meat and milk production; (3) the adoption of the PCC’s technologies by the farmers was still slow and incomplete; (4) the status of the dairy enterprise was not yet well-developed; (5) the NIZ program management of the PCC needed to be strengthened; and (6) the PCC’s partners in the industry need to be capacitated some more through various trainings that will enhance their skills and capability in buffalo management. Dr. Duran said that based on the results of the study, his team is now working to help the NIZ farmers improve their management practices. He also emphasized that they will focus on increasing the breeding efficiency in the NIZ to increase the number of herds in Nueva Ecija toward achieving increased income of the NIZ farmers. He said that to increase the breeding efficiency, DHIP will conduct massive artificial insemination (AI) activities in the various parts of Nueva Ecija. Likewise, he said, the NIZ farmers will also be advised to practice night corralling for their loaned bulls in their respective areas to enhance the success of natural mating. “AI is an artificial process of impregnating the carabaos. In night corralling, the bull is corralled along with the breedable female carabaos for natural mating purposes,” said Dr. Duran. He explained that doing this practice, the breeding efficiency at the NIZ can be increased from 27% (per 2013 findings) to 35% this year. “We also have other plans in the DHIP for the succeeding years of implementation. These plans are focused on improving the current extension services of PCC to its farmer-partners in the dairy industry and in improving the monitoring and evaluation efforts of PCC,” Dr. Duran said. He added they will also provide trainings for all the key players of PCC in the dairy industry to enhance the skills of these key players in their practices on animal husbandry, cooperative development, leadership, membership, enterprise or business development and developing markets, and market linkages. These key players are the champion farmers in the NIZ, the dairy cooperatives officials and members, the VBAIT’s and the LGU’s in Nueva Ecija. “We will also put an effective and practical proper recording system to properly monitor all the necessary data for the improvement of the NIZ,” he added. Finally, he said: “When all these plans and interventions are finally accomplished by the PCC, there will be no doubt that our agency can strengthen further the buffalo industry in Nueva Ecija. If this happens, our mission to create a progressive and profitable livestock industry in the NIZ and in the country can happen in due time.”
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