Showing posts with label milking cows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milking cows. Show all posts
Friday, December 11, 2009
In Pangasinan, there’s now a town of milk and money
By Yolanda Sotelo
Inquirer Northern Luzon
LAOAC, Pangasinan – Three tall structures at a Maraboc village farm here always catch the attention of motorists.
These are newly constructed silos where cattle feed, mostly corn, are stored.
Around the towering structures are corrals where 360 cows imported from New Zealand have been temporarily herded.
The compound seems out-of-place on this flat palay plain, but a Pangasinan congressman said it proclaimed that this sleepy town would soon become the dairy capital of Northern Luzon.
Soon, selected farmers will be getting New Zealand cows, which they will feed and milk until they can produce enough supply to sell to neighboring towns, said Representative Mark Cojuangco.
The proposed dairy trade is a congressional project that will not disrupt the town’s thriving rice and corn production, he said.
Milk may become a secondary trade for farmers still struggling to earn a living.
The project should be able to produce enough milk in two to three months to develop a thriving retail market for farmers, Cojuangco said.
It took the district five years to raise capital.
Cojuangco said: “Every year, I saved some money [from my countryside development fund] and I asked [allocations] also from the senators, which I deposited [in] the National Dairy Authority. We bought land in Laoac where we established the silos.”
The National Dairy Authority is the agency tasked to execute the Laoac dairy program.
Last year, the government tried to jumpstart the program by distributing cattle to farmers as part of an alternative livelihood campaign. But the animals were immediately recalled when 10 cows died.
This time, the government will target rice or corn farmers who are unable to make their fields productive. They will form the first batch of dairy farmers in Laoac, the congressman said.
These farmers would have to suspend corn production and prioritize their cattle in order to make the project work, he said.
The municipal agriculture office of Laoac is currently surveying the town’s farming community to determine who will benefit from the program.
Cojuangco said that under the project, each farmer would be assigned five milking cows, from which he could earn up to P30,000 in monthly profit.
“We want those taking part in the program to focus on dairy production only, nothing else. We observed that when the recipient has other sources of income, the project may fail because he or she is not [devoted to] the project … which is why we are looking for beneficiaries who will commit to dairy production only,” he said.
Under the program, there will be a centralized source of feed which will be stored in the silos. The feed will be composed mainly of corn plant tops collected for free during “tadaw” – the season when farmers harvest corn.
Because the silos are sealed, the chopped corn plants are deprived of oxygen, enabling the stock to last for as long as two years
Cows will never be deprived of food even during the dry months.
“Cows eat a lot – from 40 to 60 kilos a day. So we really need to ensure availability of feeds or they will not produce milk,” Cojuangco said.
The chopped corn stalks are mixed with minerals, protein and vitamins to produce feeds called TMR, or totally mixed ration.
The TMR, which costs P1 a kilo, will be rationed to farmers twice a day.
“We will also collect milk twice a day,” Cojuangco said.
The farmers earn by selling milk to a central sterilization and processing plant at P20 a liter.
Since a cow can produce an average of eight liters of milk a day, farmers may expect up to P800 a day.
The sterilization equipment had already been shipped to Maraboc village, said Philip Villanueva, the dairy project manager.
“We are just waiting for the technical people to commission it,” he said.
For the moment, farmers who avail themselves of the cows may pasteurize the milk manually, purely for household consumption.
If 300 cows produce 10 liters of milk a day, 3,000 liters of fresh milk may be available for the market, Cojuangco said.
The plan is to put up more silos to serve a minimum of 1,000 heads of cow to be dispersed in Pangasinan’s fifth district.
“We hope to get some of the fund for the district. Milk is really nutritious and is much better than rice and noodles,” he said.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Milking a grand venture for all its worth
By Linda Bolido
Philippine Daily Inquirer
AFTER making a name in different fields, a group of businessmen have now gotten together to venture into something completely different from what they have been doing for most of their productive lives.
Led by the son and namesake of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, the group set up the Real Fresh Dairy Farms Inc. (RFDFI) in Bay, Laguna, near the Dairy Training Research Institute (DTRI) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, from which they learned the technology.
The farm makes Holly’s (from Holstein, the breed of the milking cows) Really Farm Fresh dairy products, such as milk, chocolate drink, kesong puti, butter, cream, mozzarella and, occasionally, yogurt.
It has developed a symbiotic relationship with DTRI. The farm uses the technology and draws from the expertise of DTRI people and has its products processed there while students get to do field work in a real working dairy enterprise.
Retirees
Half of the partners are retirees who, like former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., are also looking for something new and different. All of them have very little or even no previous experience at all in cattle ranching, much less dairy farming.
The partners – Magsaysay, Danilo Katigbak Dimayuga of Lipa City, Ralph Casino of Iligan City, Felipe Bince of Pangasinan, Jose Eduardo Arroyo of Pampanga, Rey David and Sofronio Larcia – got to know each other through their jobs or businesses or their wives.
For these entrepreneurs, the process of learning a new business venture is as exciting as, probably even more exciting than, the result.
Successful businessmen that they have been and are, they do expect to turn in a profit –eventually. But for this group of intrepid men, the new venture is more than just an exercise to show they still have the savvy and the smarts to succeed. It is also a practical way to promote an advocacy and help people.
Dimayuga, company president, said very few people were venturing into this business so they wanted to encourage and help farmers by introducing them to new technology to reduce reliance on imports.
The National Dairy Authority (NDA) said dairy products were the country’s second largest agricultural import after wheat. Some 99 percent of the country’s dairy requirements came from abroad. In 2007, NDA estimated total domestic dairy requirements to be about 2.635 million metric tons (MMT) and growing at about 2 percent yearly.
Dimayuga said current estimates placed total annual dairy imports at $500 million. Thus, increased local milk production will mean considerable savings in foreign exchange.
And the partners, particularly Magsaysay, would like to see Filipinos, especially the young, develop the habit of drinking milk, not just to reduce import costs but for health reasons. Magsaysay, who said milk helped him survive childhood illnesses, said it should be a basic food for Filipinos being full of nutrients.
Through the dairy farm’s produce, the partners hope more and more Filipinos will taste the true goodness of fresh milk and develop a taste for it.
Inadequate feeding
The need for new and local players in the dairy market is underscored by the NDA that said, “Despite continuing government and industry efforts to increase dairy production, Philippine milk production remains at less than 1 percent of total dairy requirements with import filling most of the supply.”
Data from the NDA showed that the country produced 13,320 metric tons of milk in 2007 but local production accounted for less than 1 percent of the total annual dairy requirement.
Although there had been an increase in the number of dairy animals, the average milking capacity per animal remained low, the NDA said, due mainly to inadequate feeding and poor animal management practices. This is why the introduction of new technology is paramount.
Bold experiment
The Real Fresh group realizes their farm, no matter how big it gets, cannot possibly reach out to everyone. So the bold experiment has other objectives. First, the partners want to demonstrate that good management can make an agricultural enterprise successful. Then, convince people they can make money from dairy farming and encourage small farmers and entrepreneurs to go into the business themselves.
Magsaysay said he and his friends wanted to test their theory that good management and efficient marketing, plus sound agricultural practices – right breed of cow, right feed, dedicated cowhands and farmers, state-of-the-art technology and competent veterinary medical support, with some private capital and assistance from the NDA could make the “learning curve” painless.
“We would like our own workers later on to start their own farms, using the technology and management skills they learn from the [RFDFI], for their own ventures,” Magsaysay said. The individual farmers could then tie up with their former employer in a cooperative or a consortium or whatever arrangement would be most practical and profitable for everyone.
The group also hopes to develop a solid customer base to be viable in three to five years. At the moment, Dimayuga said the company produces about 3,500 liters of raw milk a week, the bulk of which goes into fresh and low-fat milk. They hope to ramp up production to 8,000 liters by the end of the year.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
AFTER making a name in different fields, a group of businessmen have now gotten together to venture into something completely different from what they have been doing for most of their productive lives.
Led by the son and namesake of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, the group set up the Real Fresh Dairy Farms Inc. (RFDFI) in Bay, Laguna, near the Dairy Training Research Institute (DTRI) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, from which they learned the technology.
The farm makes Holly’s (from Holstein, the breed of the milking cows) Really Farm Fresh dairy products, such as milk, chocolate drink, kesong puti, butter, cream, mozzarella and, occasionally, yogurt.
It has developed a symbiotic relationship with DTRI. The farm uses the technology and draws from the expertise of DTRI people and has its products processed there while students get to do field work in a real working dairy enterprise.
Retirees
Half of the partners are retirees who, like former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., are also looking for something new and different. All of them have very little or even no previous experience at all in cattle ranching, much less dairy farming.
The partners – Magsaysay, Danilo Katigbak Dimayuga of Lipa City, Ralph Casino of Iligan City, Felipe Bince of Pangasinan, Jose Eduardo Arroyo of Pampanga, Rey David and Sofronio Larcia – got to know each other through their jobs or businesses or their wives.
For these entrepreneurs, the process of learning a new business venture is as exciting as, probably even more exciting than, the result.
Successful businessmen that they have been and are, they do expect to turn in a profit –eventually. But for this group of intrepid men, the new venture is more than just an exercise to show they still have the savvy and the smarts to succeed. It is also a practical way to promote an advocacy and help people.
Dimayuga, company president, said very few people were venturing into this business so they wanted to encourage and help farmers by introducing them to new technology to reduce reliance on imports.
The National Dairy Authority (NDA) said dairy products were the country’s second largest agricultural import after wheat. Some 99 percent of the country’s dairy requirements came from abroad. In 2007, NDA estimated total domestic dairy requirements to be about 2.635 million metric tons (MMT) and growing at about 2 percent yearly.
Dimayuga said current estimates placed total annual dairy imports at $500 million. Thus, increased local milk production will mean considerable savings in foreign exchange.
And the partners, particularly Magsaysay, would like to see Filipinos, especially the young, develop the habit of drinking milk, not just to reduce import costs but for health reasons. Magsaysay, who said milk helped him survive childhood illnesses, said it should be a basic food for Filipinos being full of nutrients.
Through the dairy farm’s produce, the partners hope more and more Filipinos will taste the true goodness of fresh milk and develop a taste for it.
Inadequate feeding
The need for new and local players in the dairy market is underscored by the NDA that said, “Despite continuing government and industry efforts to increase dairy production, Philippine milk production remains at less than 1 percent of total dairy requirements with import filling most of the supply.”
Data from the NDA showed that the country produced 13,320 metric tons of milk in 2007 but local production accounted for less than 1 percent of the total annual dairy requirement.
Although there had been an increase in the number of dairy animals, the average milking capacity per animal remained low, the NDA said, due mainly to inadequate feeding and poor animal management practices. This is why the introduction of new technology is paramount.
Bold experiment
The Real Fresh group realizes their farm, no matter how big it gets, cannot possibly reach out to everyone. So the bold experiment has other objectives. First, the partners want to demonstrate that good management can make an agricultural enterprise successful. Then, convince people they can make money from dairy farming and encourage small farmers and entrepreneurs to go into the business themselves.
Magsaysay said he and his friends wanted to test their theory that good management and efficient marketing, plus sound agricultural practices – right breed of cow, right feed, dedicated cowhands and farmers, state-of-the-art technology and competent veterinary medical support, with some private capital and assistance from the NDA could make the “learning curve” painless.
“We would like our own workers later on to start their own farms, using the technology and management skills they learn from the [RFDFI], for their own ventures,” Magsaysay said. The individual farmers could then tie up with their former employer in a cooperative or a consortium or whatever arrangement would be most practical and profitable for everyone.
The group also hopes to develop a solid customer base to be viable in three to five years. At the moment, Dimayuga said the company produces about 3,500 liters of raw milk a week, the bulk of which goes into fresh and low-fat milk. They hope to ramp up production to 8,000 liters by the end of the year.
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