Right Breeding Strategy A Must:

[mikey]

What Alaminos has written is some sound advice for breeders.Having a breeding plan and the genetic pool to breed from can produce first place in the show ring.The value of this doeling has increased due to replacement value.All offsprings, both males and females will be of a higher value as the breeder can place a Breeders Premium on the sale of all its offspring.Taking first place has its privileges.

Congrats on your win.Excellent.

[alaminos_goatfarm]

Thanks Mikey... all these will not be possible had I not read the very informative  article you place in this site about line breeding. True,I was being encouraged by friends at PCARRD about line breeding our Mitra Line because they saw its potential, being very prolific and being adapted to the tropical environment. The clincher was when I repeatedly read that line breeding article which convinced me that this can be done with our Mitra Line.

True enough as we continue to move forward we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
When we are done with the line breeding prorgram of the Mitra Line we have two options: one we pick the best ML doelings and breed them with our best Saanen Bucks to produced what you call a Snubian, we will call ours, Alaminos Mitra  Saanen cross.

The second option is to introduce a new family of Anglonubian blood of high producing Nubians. These option aim to improve the milking ability of the Mitra Line.

All these have a time frame of at least five years, that's how long genetic improvement is. Along the way meeting people, winning awards in shows, getting recognition from peers and the academe makes it worthwhile. The premium that we get in terms of prices when we sell the Mitra Line breeders from buyers is very rewarding and these keeps us going with our Mitra Line breeding prorgam.

[alaminos_goatfarm]

Crossroad......  Meat or Milk  for the Mitra Line

Breeding the Mitra line the past several years have brought us a lot of success. The Mitra Line is basically  an Anglo Nubian breed of goat. Being an Anglo Nubian it is a dual breed both meat and milk type goat. Who can question the meat type attributes of the Mitra Line in the Philippines?

The Mitra line is noted for its fast growth rate and is very prolific. The breeding program was focused on the meat type qualities. The introduction of AGF Darwyn as our herd sire in 2007 furthered cemented the meat type features of the Mitra line. This was what the customers wants, an Anglo Nubian buck that can upgrade their herd. The physical features of ML buck was perfect for their requirement to produce a fast growing meat type slaughter goat.

After successfully venturing into goat dairying with the Saanen breed in 2007, we slowly built a name for Alaminos Milk Star fresh pasteurized milk in the supermarket trade in Metro Manila. In 2008, it made history in Philippine Agriculture as the first fresh pasteurized  goats milk to be commercially available in the supermarket trade in Metro Manila. In February, 2009 the Philippines Bureau of Food and Drug issued Alaminos Goat Farm  a license to operate as a dairy producer.

In 2009, together with PCARRD and National Dairy Authority we undertook a milk testing project to measure daily milk volumes and quality produced by dairy goats at AGF. Milk were tested for protein and solids in the laboratory. The Saanen produced more milk and were consistent with the 305 days lactation period compared with our Mitra Line. One striking discovery we made was, the Mitra Line produces milk with more solids compared with the Saanen. When sensory testing were done the milk of the Mitra Line tasted sweeter.

This led us to the idea of adding 20% Mitra Line dairy goats in the milking line would enhance the taste of Milk Star fresh pasteurized goats milk we are producing. With the higher solid content it would be ideal for cheese making.

AGF is moving a family of the Mitra Line (ML) towards a dairy line and it is starting to gain momentum this year. Selection are now centered on milk records, udder size, big barrel and bone type structure with angular features of a dairy type  Mitra Line. Based on the records that we keep, we are trying to train our eyes to spot conformations of a high performing dairy milking  goat.

Records were very useful in tracking down pedigree of Mitra line does produced which have milk type features. This led us to use AGF Edgar as herd sire for the production of dairy type Mitra line goats this year. Dairy type bucks were also acquired, AGF Hercules and Smooth Alex from Braveheart Farm of Tito Manny Pinol to add new family to our Mitra line..

As a final stroke after we produce a dairy type Mitra line does we will cross them with our top Saanen herdsire AGF Ricky and AGF Dorian to take advantage of heterosis. Producing a hybrid Alaminos Mitra Saanen (AMS) cross capable of producing  more  than 2.5 liters of milk per day is on the pipeline. The only thing we have to answer is, can the AMS cross do a 305 days lactation period like the Saanen under the tropical condition of the Philippines?

This looks very interesting for us at AGF and  holds a lot of promise in helping develop goat dairying in tropical Philippines. Join us in our advocacy that goat dairying is a sustainable and profitable undertaking for the Filipino farmers in the countryside.