Agri Magazine features sheep

By ZAC B. SARIAN

August 25, 2010, 2:09pm

There’s a good money-making potential in raising sheep as featured in the September issue of Agriculture Magazine which is now off the press. It is possibly the reason why the forthcoming Agrilink trade show from October 7 to 9 will be placing special emphasis on small ruminants which are principally goats and sheep.

The September issue features the tandem of Jonie and Jeff Valencia who run the Ebenezer Goat Farm in Capas, Tarlac. Raising sheep has its own advantages. The animals are very docile and they could be raised not only for meat but also as browsers that will keep down the weeds in an orchard.

Of course, sheep meat is also a delicacy. The lamb chop you order in upscale restaurants is expensive. Sheep could be cooked into a lechon that has its special taste. Our friend Dr. Rene Sumaoang who has almost a hundred sheep in his farm in Tarlac says that one sheep lechon he made during a celebration of his daughter’s passing the medical board was able to feed no less than 50 people.

Of course, there are other interesting stories in the September issue of Agriculture Magazine. One of them is Madre de Agua as a cheap chicken feed. One native chicken raiser in Batangas is able to reduce the cost of feeding by feeding his flock with 50 percent chopped Madre de Agua and 50 percent commercial feed. He said he could make a P100 net profit from one native chicken raised in five to six months.

There is also the inspiring story of the self-sustaining demo farm in Calauan, Laguna – the Center for Rural Technology Development or CRTD. This center showcases doable technologies that farmers can adopt. These include integrated farming, vermiculture-based projects, tilapia breeding and hatchery, livestock-based farming system, aquaculture-based farming system and several other projects.

Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III reports on the vermicomposting project of Mountain View College in Valencia, Bukidnon. The college started with a hundred kilos of African nightcrawler in 2006. Today, Dr. Guerrero reports, it has an estimated 3.5 tons of earthworms that churn vermicompost out of locally available raw materials. Everyday, the vermi project produces about 800 kilos of vermicompost which is mostly used for the school’s farm projects.

You will also read about the new pole sitao varieties and Arabica coffee varieties approved recently by the National Seed Industry Council. The new pole sitao varieties, Hitik and Rikit, were developed by researchers of the BPI station in Los Banos. The three approved strains of Arabica coffee, on the other hand, were developed by the BPI station in Baguio City.

Published in Manila Bulletin August 26, 2010.
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52 Practical/Scientific Reasons to go to Church...

besides the obvious ones.

Reason No. 3 - Happier Marriages

Can going to church improve your marriage? There is considerable evidence for this.
Take for example, one study published in the Review of Religious Research in 1990. The study was conducted by M.G. Dudley and F.A. Kosinski. They tested 228 married Bible Christian couples for private religious practice (personal and family prayer, Bible reading), intrinsic religiosity (how the person feels about religion), and religious practice (going to church, witnessing, financial support). After controlling for a number of variants, the best predictor of happy marriage was found to be consistent religious practice -- including attending church and personal and family devotion. This study is one of many that corroborate these findings across many faiths.
Dudley, M.G., and F.A. Kosinski, "Religiosity and Marital Satisfaction: A Research Note," Review of Religious Research 32 (1990): 78-86.

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