A Call for Cattle Revitalization
Now that cattle production in the country cannot cope with the market demand, what are the measures being done to revitalize the industry?
Based on data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), the cattle industry contributed some P15.6 M gross value in 2007 to the livestock subsector. There was a decrease in the volume of production of around 1.84% in 2007 compared to that in 2006.
“Cattle production cannot cope with the demand. Part of the cattle being slaughtered is, in fact, part of our local herd,” Livestock Development Council Deputy Executive Director Felix Valenzuela said.
Despite the dip in the demand of local consumers for beef owing to economic difficulties since the past year that had caused them to go for pork and chicken meat, cattle production in the country still cannot cope with the demand.
Per capita consumption of meat figures according to BAS indicate that for beef it was only 1.84 kilograms in 1987 vis-a-vis that for pork at 13.9 kilograms and for chicken meat, almost 8 kilograms.
Is something being done about the state of cattle production?
The deputy executive director replied, “If I may borrow the words of the DA secretary, at this time, the effort of the Agriculture Department is more on the investment phase as we know that cattle is a long-term business so right now, the government is intending to import some stock and then infuse this into the local production.”
“We are looking at importing from the United States and Australia which are popular sources - for the US, under the USPL (US Public Law) 480 where the Philippines gets to import commodities to be monetized and treated as loan,” he added.
He shared that the government plans to import Brahman cattle and perhaps also some other adaptable tropical breed. The preferred breed of raisers is the Brahman since it is highly adaptable to our local environment. There are reports that the backyard sector exhibits preference for the white variety with long ears and these are the dominant characteristics of Brahman.
There is more demand for Brahman in the auction market and it commands a higher value so Brahman has been a mainstay in the country.
Valenzuela explained that the cattle industry is a two-sector enterprise: commercial and backyard and that the backyard sector is predominant since it comprises 97% of today’s 2.5 million total estimated cattle inventory in the country. Majority of those in the commercial sector undertake breeding whereas fattening is channeled to the backyard sector so there is complementarity between the commercial and backyard sector.
The average increase in cattle inventory for the last 10 years is only 0.86% and the increase is only in the backyard sector. The commercial sector has been on a steady decline with only a slight increase in zoo6 and a decreasing inventory in 2007.
What problems plague the cattle industry?
“Actually, one of the present problems in the commercial sector is the adequacy of capital that is why one of the requests of some of our raisers is for the government to make credit available. Also, there are problems on squatting and, in some cases, peace and order.”
The director cited a major problem ailing the commercial sector that cropped LIP only lately as a result of a new law requiring pasture leases renewal to be subjected to the issuance of clearance from the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). Majority of those in the commercial sector rely on pasture lease agreements with the government that arc issued by the DENR. Most of the big tracks of land nationwide have IP claims and it is only the Masbate area that has no such claim. This inhibits the commercial cattle raisers from expanding.
When we talk about land issue for the commercial sector, we are talking about hundreds of hectares for commercial cattle business.
In contrast, for backyard raisers, land ownership is not an issue at all. There are lots of backyard cattle raisers who do not own any piece of land. That is the case in Batangas where some of the people who are into cattle raising do not own any land. They can manage to fatten cattle through what we call zero grazing. The raiser gets forages anywhere and brings these to his cattle. Zero grazing means bringing the grass to the cattle and not bringing the cattle to grassy fields. As long as one is industrious to bring grass to his cattle, his business will thrive since there is no other further need for capital infusion except to acquire additional cattle material for expansion.
The cattle business has a great attraction on a backyard scale. “There is money in it,” shared Deputy Executive Director Valenzuela.
“Invest in cattle and it can sell very quickly: in as short as two months for those who introduce feed concentrates and longer for those who rely only on forage or grass feeding”
With farmers, however, the cattle is kept longer, even beyond six months since it is used as a farm animal before they bring it to the auction market or offer it to their neighbors.
Compared to poultry farm or swine business, cattle fattening is less cumbersome. The only issue is the capitalization required for the initial stock. One may just rely on grasses and established pastures so practically, there is little capital involved in the cattle business.
“The average price of imported cattle is $2.30 per kilogram. That is almost the same as the price of cattle here, which is more than P80 per kilogram - almost P100 - say, P90 per kilogram, to be conservative for profit reckoning purposes.”
As Executive Director Felix Valenzuela said, ideal materials for fattening are those that weigh 310 - 350 kilograms. The average price of a good fattening material is from P30,000 to P40.000. These are fattened for 2 - 4 months, or longer.
“With good feed and forages, a cattle can get around to having a weight gain of from .7 to 1 kilogram per day so if one fattens it for 120 days, multiplied by .7 kilogram, that would be 84 kilograms increase in weight, more or less. If we multiply 84 by the cattle price of say, P90 per kilogram, the yield would be P7,560. Just deduct the cost of the feed component and you arrive at a still-big profit.”
Pure grass feeding will result in lower weight gain of say, .4 to .5 kilograms per day
The profit would all depend on the weight gain in the case of the fattening business. The longer fattening is undertaken, the more the weight gain and the higher the profit one can expect. Investment in fattening after the initial capitalization for the purchase of the stock is nil, if one decides on using only forage for feeding. The cattle can just graze in any grassy land available, not necessarily land owned by the person who owns the cattle.
In slaughtered cattle, according to Deputy Executive Director Valenzuela, the rule of thumb is 50% recovery rate. Sold and used as beef thus would be in the vicinity of 180-210 kilograms.
“Beef “sold in the country’s public markets are guaranteed safe from the dreaded mad cow disease,” he declared.
“We have what we call bio-security measures being implemented by the government. Right now, there is no incidence and no threat of the mad cow problem. The beef consuming public is assured that whenever there are countries identified to have mad cow disease incidence, all our importation, whether these are for breeding or for fattening, are immediately cut off.”
Most importantly, the government has strategies for improving the quality of materials for both backyard and commercial cattle ventures. These include the genetic improvement program - the introduction of good genetic material into the existing herd to improve our animals - as the centerpiece agenda. The government resorts to importation as part of the strategies to augment the present level of production of cattle. Investments in improving the breed of cattle produced in the country is an ongoing program that is’ considered a priority.
