A thrust toward forage crops seed development is eyed by authorities as the Philippines is seen to have the tremendous potential to raise a cost-effective cattle industry with its yearround grazing capability.

The development of viable seeds and planting materials for forage crops is eyed as a priority program of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) which is linked to strategic stage agencies and state colleges and universities (SCUs).

"(There will be) improvement of existing grassland areas through over-sowing of legumes or complete replacement through introduction of high-yielding species," according to BAR’s 2006-2010 research and development (R&D) agenda.

The development of forage crops will be in tandem with the development of organic fertilizer and appropriate soil conservation and management practices in grazing areas.

Benjamin Molina, a National Dairy Authority consultant and an animal scientist and co-founder of the Happy Cows at Tropical Dairy Farm, said earlier that the Philippines has numerous indigenous crops suitable as pasture feed for animals.

And the presence of year-round forage crops amid a tropical weather (against erratic pasture availability in temperate zones), he said, is a major factor why the country can become globally competitive in raising dairy animals.

There are present concerns on the dominance of poisonous or toxic plants in natural grazing areas that could adversely affect animal health. The depletion of soil nutrient is also a problem due to continuous nutrient uptake of forages without replenishment.

But the government aims to mitigate the presence of these poisonous plants to protect animal health and encourage soil conservation through the use of organic fertilizer. Legumes are among the crops known to enhance soil nutrient management.

Moreover, the Department of Agriculture-BAR aims to identify the appropriate government agency that can institutionalize management systems for developing pasture areas.

This includes ensuring tenurial conditions on pasture leases. Cattle raisers face the problem of keeping an adequate area for pasture since a significant number of pasture areas is being converted as residential or industrial area.

Regarding cattle breeds, research and development (R&D) experts aim to come up with gene mapping of existing beef cattle breeds and with an evaluation of the performance of different purebreds and crossbreds.

The Philippines is in dire need of developing a cattle industry specially for dairy as the country is 99 percent import-dependent on dairy products import of around 0 million yearly.

The development of a cost-effective feed for cattle is also becoming more imperative with the high cost of concentrates and feedgrains in the market.

Other R&D thrusts for improving productivity through genetic development are on artificial insemination (AI), embryo transfer, in-vitro fertilization targeted at producing an "elite local dairy herd," and the development of dairy breeding capacity and assessment of performance of F1 offspring.

Other important support projects for dairy are the review of milk tariff (in order to protect the local industry from imports), assessment of dairy zones for enterprise development, development of waste management systems and pollution controls, and establishment of marketing techniques to promote local milk consumption.

Post-production technology including a prototype design and fabrication of cheap quality farm-plant tools is also a concern of dairy authorities.

On carabao development, R&D thrusts are on in-vitro genetic conservation of indigenous and other important carabao species; identification of genetic and molecular markers of indigenous species and identification of quantitative trait loci; biotechnology for superior male animal breeding through semen cryopreservation, sperm sexing, and AI.

For the development of superior female animals, improvement is hoped to be done through control of ovarian function, superovulation, in-vitro maturation or fertilization, embryo transfer, embryo sexing, ovum-pick-up, nuclear transfer, and use of transgenic technologies to hasten development of desired traits in animals.

Under Animal Resource Management, research focus is on improving rumen function and nutrient utilization in carabaos, improvement of nutritive value of local feed materials, and establishment of feeding system for small-hold production and of nutrition standards and feed libraries.
There are also aims to add value to carabao products in order to raise farmers’ income by enhancing milk and meat quality via biotechnology.

Since environment has a noted impact on animals, experts are also assessing reducing livestock production-related stress factors and is encouraging the development of organic livestock farming.