First Milk in Capalonga

Capalonga is a fourth class municipality in the Province of Camarines Norte located 73km Northwest of Daet and 367km South of Manila. My first impression is that its seclusion from the national highway has limited its growth as a municipality. However, the town boasts of rich coastal and marine resources as well as fertile farmlands.

About four years ago, Dr. Hulsey Orit, then an agriculturist of the municipality, asked NDA for dairy cattle frozen semen. He was trained in artificial insemination and the town invested on a liquid nitrogen tank. There was no reason not to give him what he asked for. So Hulsey did artificial insemination with the purpose of upgrading the local stocks into dairy. This continued for sometime without much NDA supervision.

Last year, we were invited to conduct a dairy orientation seminar for those who are interested. We learned that the municipality has established a two-cow dairy farm making use of the upgraded animals. It was a surprise indeed.

By this time, Hulsey is now the municipal agriculturist, and have undergone training on dairy in the Netherlands. However, they were having problems with the performance of the animals. They could only get half a litter in every milking.

We tried to understand the problem by asking questions. Surely the animal is capable of producing more than half a litter since it was a product of crossing native cattle with dairy through artificial insemination.

We advised them to separate the calf from the dam every 4pm. This way, more milk can be taken from the animal. Hulsey and the rest of his staff hesitated. They feared that it would affect the calf’s growth. We simply said that if it’s a dairy animal then it would have more than enough milk for the calf.

The following day we visited the farm again and observed them milking. We pointed some things that they need to improve on in the milking routine. But the best part was that they were able to get about four liters from just one animal. Not bad for the first day. We later learned that the animals averaged about five liters.

As soon as we finished milking we taught Hulsey how to pasteurize and bottle the milk using only kitchen vessels and utensils. Hulsey, obviously proud, literally paraded the milk to the municipal hall and presented the milk to the Mayor.

St. Elmo's

We went to Nasugbu (about 76km from Manila) to visit St. Elmo's Farm. The owner, Elmer Rivera (at left with a few of his herd), has about 60 anglo nubian-saanen crosses. His highest producer, with marked saanen characteristics, produces about six liters a day.

If you want to learn about goats in general, go to Kambing (Goat) School. The site provides information about goats, breeds, and the goat business. I have yet to find Elmer's farm in their list.

His feeding consists mostly of napier and legumes from his one hectare land. He also gets additional grasses and legumes from nearby areas. He said legumes are his secret. Every time he has an order or when he anticipates an increase in demand, high legume feeding becomes the norm.

Feeding the animals means gathering enough grass and legumes to fill four of these feeding stands (above).
St. Elmo's is also the brand for the farm's finished products, which includes fresh and flavored milk, soft cheese, feta, and soap (yes, soap).

Milking is done by hand in their makeshift milking platform. As the picture shows, the platform is designed for the ease of the milker. A guillotine type head lock assures the goat will go nowhere.

A few months ago, the farm was troubled with mastitis. Elmer sought help from NDA which promptly provided advise.

Today, Elmer is concentrating on expanding his market and making alliances with other goat raisers.

I'll tell you more about Elmer in the coming months as I'm also inclined to go into the business myself.

My attempt

I'm a veterinarian with the Philippines' National Dairy Authority. NDA's mandate is to assure the accelerated growth of the dairy subsector. Unlike in traditional dairy producing countries, most of the local milk production comes from backyard raising of dairy crosses, similar to other South East Asian countries like Thailand and Indonesia.

If you need to look at hard figures, click here

I will be posting my thoughts about my work and the dairy industry. This is not to compete with NDA's website where the dairy industry is presented through facts and figures. I will present the local industry as I see it.