BENEFITS OF BUFFALO DAIRYING CAN’T BE UNDERRATED, A BUKIDNON COUPLE AVERS

Nida Abellanosa of Don Carlos, Bukidnon, once harbored doubts and pessimistic outlook about the journey on buffalo dairying that she and her husband Carlo embarked on.

She revealed that she underrated the benefits of buffalo dairying as she had not seen anyone yet who was getting successful in this widely embraced venture in their area.

“I had a negative feeling then when my husband told me that he wanted to join the program in buffalo dairying because I knew, beforehand, that it is not going to be an easy undertaking,” Nida said.

But then she agreed especially when she got the feeling that her husband was determined to try it. “I didn’t object when my husband immediately established a concrete barn and converted a few hectares of our farm into a forage area,” Nida said.

The Abellanosa family’s main source of income is sugarcane farming. Carlo was enjoined to attend an orientation on buffalo dairying conducted by the LGU of Don Carlos and the PCC@CMU in 2016.

The PCC@CMU loaned out to them 10 buffaloes. It turned out that the animals given to them were already pregnant. When the animals gave birth and they started to derive benefits from the enterprise, all of Nida’s qualms about the uncertain gains from the enterprise banished.

“I even noticed that sugarcane farming requires a lot of manpower to finish the tasks involved in it than in buffalo dairying. In fact, not even a whole day is required to finish all the chores in buffalo dairying with the help only of our family members,” Nida said.

As they both witnessed the unfolding of the good benefits in buffalo dairying, they both agreed in the opinion that this enterprise will generate more revenues for them and that it can become their primary source of income.

After a few years, their dairy buffaloes doubled. They now have 20 buffaloes and one bull.

Carlo, because of his leadership abilities, was elected chairman of the Muleta-Side Buffalo Dairy Association (MUSBUDA).

From their seven lactating animals, they collect an average of 6-8 liters of milk from each of them daily.

Since they started collecting and selling their milk harvest in September 2017, they had already registered a total gross income of approximately Php376,000.

As for their tandem in this enterprise, Nida is the one milking the buffaloes while Carlo manages the rest of the operations such as feeding, bathing and grazing the buffaloes.

Being a flourishing buffalo-based enterprise, the Abellanosa’s farm was accredited in 2018 by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) to be a Learning Site for buffalo production.

The farm serves as a venue for practical learning opportunities intended for the establishment of buffalo-based village enterprise for smallholder farmers like them.

Aside from this, they even got good news about their enterprise.

Dr. Lowell Paraguas, center director of PCC@ CMU, announced that per initial agreement with the LGU of Don Carlos, a Dairy Box one-stopshop will soon be put up in their place. This establishment will become a ready outlet for freshly made products that use buffalo’s milk as main ingredient.

Having heard about this development, Nida’s and Carlo’s goal now is to increase some more the number of their buffaloes. They also plan to acquire machinery for buffalo production and above all, they intend to process their milk harvest into different kinds of milk-based products.