RUMINANT PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The systems of goat/sheep production can be categorized into:

1. Tethering

2. Extensive Production (Freely Grazing)

3. Semi-intensive Production

4. Intensive Production (Pure Confinement)

5. Integration into Crop Agriculture

6. Rapid Rotational Grazing

TETHERING

 Goats are knotted to a rope roughly about 6-10 m long

 Goats are closely monitored

 Limited damage to crops

 They are transferred once or twice daily to areas where it will have free access to fresh browsing

 Common production management system in the Philippines

FREELY GRAZING

 Small herd of goats, 5-10 will let loose to browse on waste vegetation and hedges

 Very little management is exercised except letting the animals loose and herding them at night

 Goats return in their own pens at night

 Lesser level of family labor characterizes the main input

SEMI-INTENSIVE

 Limited grazing and Stall-feeding

 Goats receive few hours of grazing and return to the farm in the evening

 Effective during wet season

 Labor requirement is less compared to pure confinement

PURE CONFINEMENT

 Animals are kept on Stalls and cut forages are provided on a cut and carry method

 Effective conversion of crop residues

 Good animal control

  Effective parasite control

 Limited damage to environment

INTEGRATION (VERTICAL)

 established plantations of mango, coconut, tamarind

 Maximum utilization of resources

 Increase fertility of the land by return of dung and urine

 Greater economic returns of the farmer from both crop and animal components

RAPID ROTATIONAL GRAZING

 Best and sustainable technology option and to control endoparasites

 dividing the pasture area into paddocks and allowing animals to graze rotationally

 designed to break the life cycle of the parasite

 3 to 4 days in each paddock

 deworming frequency reduced by six times

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE
TYPE OF OPERATION

BASED ON PURPOSE OF PRODUCT

(CATTLE AND CARABAO)

1. Cow-calf (caracow - caracalf) operation

2. Breeder farm operation

3. Growing-fattening operation

4. Dairy farm operation

COW-CALF OPERATION

 cow and bulls are raised to produce calves, then raised until

 Post weaning, calves can be sold, or raised for several months for use as additional stocks
and/or sold as fattener

 longest production period with 7-8 years

 laborious but considered very significant operation

 regularly supplies calves for replacement stocks and fattening-finishing production for another
farm operation

 The most challenging production since raisers/producers need to be familiar with the following

 basic reproductive phenomena -breeding systems

 feeding systems

 proper care and management of heifer/cow, bulls and calves

 health management program

BREEDER FARM OPERATION

 Calves are raised until they are ready for breeding provided they pass the selection criteria
(breeding purposes)

 main output is to produced quality breeder stocks, a large herd is a pre-requisite for the
selection of replacement stocks

 Requires a number of animal stocks, a big farm and a big capital investment

 Raisers must have long years of experience and have gained in various field of large ruminant
raising

GROWING-FATTENING OPERATION

 Most common type of cattle production in the Philippines

  involves raising of newly weaned calves or culled mature heifers until they are ready for
slaughter

 Requires simple facilities and level of management

 Operation period is shorter and ROI is relatively higher than the cow-calf operation

 Growing (7-12 mo) must be separated from fattening or finishing (23-25 mo)

 Raising growing animals

-need simple care and management practices

-needs little capital investment

-can be handled even by smallhold raisers

 Raising fattening-finishing animals

-done intensively (fed-lot) or in confinement (kept with minimum movement so that the feeds
given to them are utilized to develop their tissues)

-best handled by well-organized farms (commercial raisers)

GROWING-FATTENING OPERATION

DAIRY OPERATION

 Produce milk for the following

 Household consumption – backyard farms

 Bottle feeding – for day zero weaning

 Milk and dairy products – commercial farms

PRODUCTION SYSTEM

1. Ranching or Extensive production

2. Integration into Crop or Plantation Agriculture

3. Feedlot or Intensive production

RANCHING

 Animals are maintained in a vast tract of open lands (public land) where animals are allowed to
graze freely

 However, the enactment of Agrarian Reform Law limits the use of these pasture areas (peace
and order situation)

 Despite this limitation, ranching still offers a good prospect

INTEGRATION
  Small vacant lots between agricultural crop plantations such as corn, rice, sugarcane, etc. May
be utilized as feed sources

 Animals can be also maintained be feeding them by-products of agricultural crops or industrial
wastes

 Under plantation crops (coconuts or forest trees are open spaces where grasses can be grown)

 For maximum benefits, both cattle/carabao and the crops should be managed PROPERLY

FEEDLOT / INTENSIVE

 Animals are kept and fed on a cut-and-carry basis and/or zero grazing

 A good pasture must be developed and maintained to ensure the regular feed supply

 Supplemental feeding using concentrate is also practiced