Salad garden is for goats

By ZAC B. SARIAN

December 30, 2010, 12:53am

This is a view of the salad garden for goats at the Alaminos Goat Farm in Alaminos, Laguna.

 MANILA, Philippines – Investing heavily in the Alaminos Salad Garden is one of the best business decisions that Alaminos Goat Farm (AGF) has made in their goat business in 2010, according to Rene Almeda who and his two sons run the modern goat farm in Laguna. He said that the idea began in 2008 when friends from the academe would say that although AGF has a good system in place, their operations were too high end – meaning, it is not within the reach of the ordinary goat raisers. At the same time, the high production cost can be attributed largely to the cost of feed concentrate.

The salad garden consists of 30 long plots planted to various forage crops from which fresh leaves are harvested every day for feeding the goats, especially the dairy animals.

The development of the Alaminos Salad Garden became the solution to address these concerns on costs and feasibility. The salad garden would hit two birds in one stone. It would address productivity and help AGF in its corporate social responsibility program by doing a project that the farmers can replicate.

In the beginning, developing the salad garden in Alaminos was done without urgency. At that the time, the main priority was goat raising while working on the fields was done in their free time.

In 2009, Almeda said they recorded an impressive performance in their dairy operation. “From 24,000 liters produced in 2008 we doubled production to 48,000 liters in 2009. It also established that the 305-day lactation period is doable under the tropical condition of the Philippines. The dairy goats averaged over 2 liters of milk per day,” he said.

In reviewing the 2009 performance they saw why they were very successful in their dairy milking operation with the Saanen breed and just average with their Boer breeder operation.

This is what they saw:

1. The dairy goats were prioritized in feeding the highly digestible and young forage grass and legumes.

2. The Boer breeders were given the excess matured forage available.

3. The emergence of indigofera as a sought-after legume for the milking goats.

4. The huge volumes of indigofera being harvested compared with the other legumes planted.

5. Improvement of the milk performance of dairy goats whenever fresh indigofera was included in the feeds.

These observations can be confirmed through a research work done by Ngo van Man, Nguyen van Hao & Vuon minh Tri of the Animal Nutrition Department, University of Agriculture and Forestry in Ho Chi Min City Vietnam. According to their study, indigofera’s plant growth rate as well as its biomass yields are much higher compared to most of the plants included in the research. In selecting the tree legumes to be studied, they chose drought resistant species that will perform on poor soils. The soil was fertilized with goat manure and organic fertilizer during the study.

The increasing milk yields of the AGF dairy goats after adding indigofera to their daily feeding regimen can also be attributed to the indigofera’s 24.8% protein level, the 84.8 % digestibility plus its 2.08% calcium content.

AGF’s confidence with the Alaminos Salad Garden bannered by the tree legume indigofera is at an all time high. The Almedas started pursuing this project seriously in early 2010 by purchasing a Bowa hand tractor. A full time worker was assigned for the planting of indigofera, mulberry and centrosema. During the dry spell at the time of El Nino, they installed drip irrigation and sprinklers in their pasture at great expense. The Alaminos Salad Garden has started to provide part of the forage requirement of their Boer breeders and the full requirement of their dairy goats in 2010.

“Palatabilty is one issue the experts are hitting us about indigofera. Our experience indicates that if you cut it every 30 days, you improve digestibility and palatability. To address this issue you must start teaching your goats to eat indigofera when they are still young,” stresses Almeda.

The Saanen milking goats in Alaminos love indigofera and it is one of AGF’s secret in successfully milking them for 305 days under the tropical condition of the Philippines. It was their farm manager Felino Serdan who stumbled upon the indigofera tree legume.

He observed that the goats love and relish eating it. In their daily milk recording, they noticed an increase in milk yields. He cuts the indigofera every 30 days to augment his feeding. This is when they discovered that it is fast growing and produces a lot of edible leaves and stem.

“We ended 2010 with a very bright outlook for 2011 because of our Alaminos Salad Garden. It will be fully operational in 2011 to provide the full forage requirement of highly digestible and protein rich forage legumes and grass for all the goats in our farm,” says Rene.

AGF has partnered with the Bureau of Animal Industry’s, Research Division to implement a project funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research to commercialize the technology they have developed through their Alaminos Salad Garden. Pelletized Total Mixed Ration (TMR) using a mixture of indigofera and malunggay plus feed concentrate will be fed to dairy goats in a controlled environment to show its positive effect in milk production.

Indigofera is one of the easiest tree legumes to plant and establish during the rainy season. Its biomass yield and protein level are one of the highest among the tree legumes the Almedas have planted. When cut every 30 days it is a highly digestible feed for goats. Based on their experience with the Alaminos Salad Garden, this is one doable technology that can help the poor farmers raising goats in the countryside tp improve productivity.

Indigofera can supplement the feeding of forage and crop residue of low nutritive values to goats the farmers raise.

“Watch as we pursue our advocacy in genetics and nutrition in 2011. The Alaminos Salad Garden would be in the limelight as we commercialize the technology to improve productivity and help modernize the goat raising industry in the Philippines. Hand in hand with genetic infusion in the countryside through Artificial Insemination, there is no way but up for goat raising in the Philippines. If only government officials were listening,” Rene Almeda concludes.

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