Pinoyagribusiness

While working with our local DA in 2009 we have been feeding all of our livestock a solutation of malunggay.Malunggay can help your breeding buck(s) with higher semen counts and maybe will help with more twins.We have been feeding our goats with this malunggay health tonic for 6 months now with no side effects at all.The live bacteria seems to help keep their stomachs in top form and the snail shells is calcium.Acts as a general health tonic.

3 or more kg. of chopped malunggay
1 kg. molasses
1  litre of clean water
handful of clean snail shells (calcium)
place in a jar for 14 days
drain and add 3-4 spoonfuls to each litre of drinking water

Mulberry does not grow in our area and the locals all thought it would never grow.Our local DA thought about this and decided it would be worth a try and gave up some mulberry cuttings to try and I am happy to say it grows well and we are now taking our own cuttings for replanting.
For dairy goats we are looking at a super food group along with their regular feeds.
malunggay,mulberry.indigo and stylo as the main ingredients for lactating goats to help increase milk production.Time will tell if this food group will have any benefits.

Any milking animal needs 2 important things to produce milk well,protein and calcium.True a poorly bred animal will not milk well no matter how good your feed group is.This I know from experience,all things being equal.

indigo- was first reported by Alaminos Goat Farm so credit to them for this information but I knew about indigo from my school days training as a designer which the natural colour blue hue comes come.
mulberry- was given to us from down in the south of the Philippines
malunggay- I have seen used in the Philippines by mothers breast feeding their babies,this was a natural choice for us and lots of information about the benefits of this plant has been published.
stylo-has been given to us by the regional DA from Dumaguete City Region 7 but is a plant that must be planted all the time because once matured and harvested it is finished.
we are also looking into another plant but at this point we know very little about the benefits of it and will report about it later.
ipil-ipil- due to its mimosine content we feed very little of if to all our livestocks.

This is a very informative write up re super foods, malunggay as you well know is very abundant and can be planted anytime and anywhere and is considered a wonder food! No wonder can be given also to goats as supplement for breeding and dairy purposes!

another plant we are taking a serious look at is the fresh water fern Azolla.This plant has a very high protein content which is needed for dairy.Any dairy animal, goats or cattle require high protein and calcium in order for them to produce milk well.
Over time people will find the right plants to feed our animals and keep them healthy in a tropical setting.The main thing is shared information to help this industry grow and become successful to those who take up the challenge.

Dairy cattle farmers have been complaining softly about the high cost of concentrates needed for their dairy operations.Same will be true for goats.What would be of a great benefit for the dairy industry is a study done from the agri. universities on the different food groups that could replace or atleast lower the volume of concentrates needed to keep the dairy animals in production.There are a variety of forage feeds in country that hold some real promise.One problem tho is that one plant will do better in one region over another region so a study would be needed from maybe 3 regions,the north,central and the south and the findings published so dairy operators have other choices to make when it comes to feeding their stock.If it could be possible to produce a leaf meal that could be made into a pellet form or just as a leaf meal itself that could give the producer a year round steady supply.The rural provincial farmer will have a hard time to feed concentrates to his stock and will most likely give up when his expences becomes too great.Rural provincial farmers need alternatives to commercial concentrates to help them survive.

A leaf meal designed for fattening would also be of a great benefit for those who wish to get into this side of the business as feeding concentrates really lowers your projections for profit making.

Lets hope there will be some movement from the universities on this topic in the near future that will benefit this exciting industry and for those who wish to enter this industry.

The BAI/DA announced last week that tests involving Trichantera also known as Madre De Agua has shown real benefits for livestock producers.According to the statement, Trichantera can be mixed up to 50% with concentrates and fed to your livestock with no real net loss to weight gain.These results are taken from hogs and chickens but can be applied to other livestocks.With the prices of concentrates to continue to rise throughout 2011,the move to blending forages with concentrates will become more important to all producers,especially for those of us in the fattening business.

We were lucky enough to attain a handful of these cuttings to experiment with our goats.

Hello, anybody knows the Tagalog name for ,indigofera and mulberry.Where can I buy seeds or cuttings of these trees.Thanks for reply.

You might try your local DA office for advise.