By Henrylito D. Tacio
Filipino farmers who want to earn extra income from their farms should raise goats. They will not only help the Philippine economy, they will also lessen their farm expenses and help fight malnutrition among children.
“They may be known as ‘poor man’s cow,’ but goats can be farmers’ source of income should there be crop failure,” points out Roy C. Alimoane, the director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) based in barangay Kinuskusan, in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. “Since goats have relatively smaller built than cattle and carabaos, they are easier to raise and require a small initial investment. As such, farmers won’t have any problem in integrating raising goats with their existing crop-based farming systems.”
Goats have been raised since time immemorial. David Mackenzie, in his book Goat Husbandry, wrote: “When man began his farming operations in the dawn of history, the goat was the kingpin of the personal life, making possible the conquest of desert and mountain and the occupation of the fertile land that lay beyond. The first of Man’s domestic animals to colonize the wilderness, the goat is the last to abandon the deserts that man leaves behind him.”
History records showed that goats were considered the first hoofed animals ever tamed. In the Biblical town of Jericho, people kept tame goats as long as 6,000 or 7,000 years before Christ. The ancient Greeks and Romans paid great attention to the rearing of goats. Anyone at all familiar with classical authors will remember how frequently these animals are mentioned, especially in pastoral poems.
According to Alimoane, goats multiply faster than cattle or carabaos. “Before a goat turns three years old, she can have given birth to as many as five kids,” he says.
Another advantage: goats require less feeds than cows and carabaos. “About 10 native goats can be fed on the feedstuffs sufficient for one cow,” Alimoane claims. “About 6-7 purebred dairy goats can be fed on what one dairy cow needs.”
Although it is a small animal, “a purebred goat can produce as much as 4 liters of milk if the doe is given a ration that meets all of her nutritional requirements,” points out Alimoane.
Goat’s milk is nearest to mother’s milk. “Thus, it has a wide variety of health benefits,” wrote Dr. Edwin C. Villar in an article, “The ‘udder side’ of goat.” “Goat milk has smaller, well-emulsified fat globules, without agglutinin protein hence easier to digest. This is very ideal for infants and senior citizens which constitute approximately 16 percent of the population of the country.”
That’s not all. “Goat milk has higher levels of amino acids and significant proportion of medium chain triglycerides, recognized as highly beneficial to a number of health issues, and has higher amount of vitamins and minerals with greater bioavailability,” Dr. Villar wrote.
A research done by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) showed that goat’s milk per 200 milligram serving can provide 20 percent of the daily requirements for calcium, 4 percent for vitamin A, and 8 percent for iron.
In the cosmetic industry, goat milk is the new trend. “It has naturally occurring alpha-hydroxyacids which is a good skin exfoliant,” Dr. Villar reported. “It is also high in capric, caprylic, and caapronic acids, which makes it a good moisturizer with good fats (the medium chain fatty acids) that keeps the skin’s oil in balance.”
But goats are not only significant because of their nutritional milk. In fact, they can also be valued for their manure. According to an article written by Rey E. Andres, “rice and tomato plants sprayed with liquid fertilizer made from fresh goat manure can effectively reduce the damaged caused by golden apple snails, tomato fruit worms, and other common pests attacking high value commercial crops.”
Andres based his report from the result of a study conducted by Dr. Aida D. Solsoloy. It was presented during the regional symposium on research and development highlights in San Fernando City, La Union. The lady scientist from Batac, Ilocos Norte gave goat manure a brand new name: bio-organic fertilizer and pesticide.
The rice and tomatoes applied with the liquid fertilizer were not only healthier, Dr. Solsoloy also found them not to be adversely affected by the damages caused by golden apple snails and fruit worms.
“As a result, she gained a substantial profit from the harvest of both crops because no additional expenses were incurred on chemical fertilizers and pesticides,” Andres wrote. “Another thing that amazed her was that the liquid fertilizer did not emit foul odor, thus, it did not attract other harmful insects, microbes and harmful fungi in the farm.”
In her study, she found out goat manure contains 1.5 percent of nitrogen (N), 1.2 percent of potassium (P), and 0.5 percent of phosphorus (K). “Goat manure contains more NPK than any other animal manure such as those in cow, deer, horse, pig, and chicken,” the study showed.
Despite this, goat farming is still not very popular among Filipinos and no one exactly knows how many goats there are in the country. The Laguna-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) claims that the total goat inventory is “steadily increasing” at two percent per year. This supply is still not enough to meet the current demands. “We expect that the increased demand will last to 2020 when the project supply can meet the demand of the consumers,” PCARRD said.
The optimum potential of goat as one of the main sources of milk and meat has not been fully tapped in the country. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics of the Department of Agriculture reported that the total number of goats in the country is about 3,355,574. Most of the goat farms are concentrated in Southern Luzon and various parts of Mindanao.
In Mindanao, goat farming is considered a “sunshine industry.” The country’s second largest island has a large Muslim population and goat meat is considered Halal food. There is also a big demand in the international market, particularly the Middle East.
But there are some good news. The DOST through PCAARRD has recently embarked on a 3-year-old program called National Dairy Goat Science and Technology. “The program has four project components which will address pressing issues of the emerging industry,” noted Dr. Villar, who is PCAARRD’s Chief Science Research Specialist Director.
The performance evaluation of dairy goats in the country will be done under Projects 1 and 2. “The result of the evaluation would lead to the selection and infusion of good breeds across the country through artificial insemination and buck loan,” Dr. Villar reported. “A herd build-up of at least 58 percent is expected with this intervention.”
For Project 3, the nutritional value of a forage called Indigofera as combined with other feed resources will be further explored as “it is believed to have a very significant contribution to the volume and quality of goat’s milk produced in some progressive farms.”
“On animal health, addressing the recurrent problems of mastitis which is common among dairy animals is considered urgent,” Dr. Villar wrote. “Thus, to abate the increasing incidence, a program on its control will be implemented particularly developing a rapid field diagnostic kit.”
Indeed, there’s a bright future now for goat raising in the country! (Next: Raising goats for food and profit)
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