The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) conducted a one-week consultation-workshop aimed at harnessing livestock extension services to enhance animal nutrition, forage production, conservation, and pasture development.
Initiated and funded by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the consultation-workshop was conducted on October 5-11 at the PCC national headquarters in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija and organized by PCC’s animal nutrition unit.
Some 40 staff from the regional field units of the Department of Agriculture as well as other government and private entities involved in agriculture, agribusiness, animal husbandry or veterinary science participated in the worshop.
In his welcome remarks, Dr. Arnel del Barrio, acting PCC executive director, said that in his 30 years of work in the carabao industry, this was the first consultation-workshop focusing on feeding, forage conservation that he encountered.
“We will continue to train and disseminate different technologies related to feeding, forage and pasture so that our livestock productivity will increase. As an animal nutritionist, it is significant in light of our program here in Nueva Ecija, which is our National Impact Zone (NIZ), to scale-up our forage production by continuously providing appropriate feeding technologies to our farmers. Let’s be united in this training and after this, the most important thing is how you are going to transfer the knowledge, skills and right attitude to your clients,” Del Barrio declared.
For his part, DA Undersecretary for Livestock Jose Reaño, who served as the guest speaker, emphasized the purpose and importance of the workshop.
“The purpose of this workshop is the proper utilization of the resources available in your respective regions, how you are going to utilize and use them to your advantage and at the same time lower the cost of production of the livestock industry here in the Philippines,” Reaño stated.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rubina Cresencio, BAI executive director, declared in her inspirational message that the workshop “will be our starting point to work together and integrate all our efforts to harness all the feed resources available in the country and increase livestock productivity.”
The workshop covered three teaching-learning phases. The first phase covered best practices in animal management and extension strategies; second, practical animal nutrition management and technical service advisory; and third, experiential learning on forage and pasture development, conservation, and feed formulation.
As an integral component of the workshop, the participants went on a field visitation of existing development models and some developed pastures or forage stand in Pampanga and Bulacan.
The workshop’s resource persons included, among others, Dr. Daniel Aquino, animal nutrition unit head; Dr. Eric Palacpac, PCC national R&D coordinator; Dr. Edgar Orden, CLSU professor VI; Prof. Tsutomu Fujihara, PCC nutrition consultant; Prof. Francisco Gabunada, Visayas State University assistant professor; and Nomer Garcia, PCC senior science research specialist.
“Karamihan sa mga nakilahok ay unang beses pa lang nilang naranasang gumawa ng urea-treated rice straw (UTRS) at pagbuburo ng damo noong praktikal sa ikalawang araw ng pagsasanay. Nakita namin ‘yong pananabik nilang matuto at malaman ‘yong paggawa noon (Most of the participants experienced doing urea-treated rice straws (UTRS) and silage for the first time during our practicum on the second day of workshop. We saw their eagerness to learn and know how to practically prepare and make UTRS and silage),” Aquino pointed out.
“They were also asked to write down their action plans after the workshop and they will be evaluated after 3-6 months for the post-training evaluation that will be conducted by BAI,” he added.
