MANILA, Philippines - Farmers should consider venturing into silage production as a profitable business enterprise.
Silage is fermented, high moisture fodder for cattle that is prepared by storing and fermenting green forage plants in a silo.
It is a profitable business especially during the dry season when there is a scarcity of green forage plants.
Silage production, however, is much better if farmers organize themselves into a cooperative and run the business.
Dr. Tsutomo Fujihara, a former professor at Shimane University, Matsue, Japan who is now a volunteer animal nutrition consultant at the Philippine Carabao Center, is pushing for a silage production business venture for farmers.
Dr. Fujihara sees the potential of silage production not only to satisfy the requirement for animal feed during the dry season, but also as a profitable business for dairy farmers.
Dr. Fujihara works full-time at the PCC to further refine and improve the quality of carabao feed sources. He is a renowned animal scientist whose work for more than 40 years is particularly focused on mineral nutrition.
Dr. Fujihara was first engaged by the PCC when he worked on a three-year project on goat and buffalo production in the Philippines with PCC executive director Dr. Libertado Cruz and Dr. Edgar Orden of Central Luzon State University as partners.
Currently, Dr. Fujihara’s work takes him to Lupao, Nueva Ecija to help farmers establish the first ever farmers’ cooperative in the country that will focus on silage production.
“I visited the Philippines more than 40 times and I observed that the smallholder farmers are very poor and organizing a cooperative may be something new to them. If they are able to form a cooperative, they will be empowered and earn more easily,” Dr. Fujihara said.
Most green forages in the Philippines, he said, are abundant only during the wet season. Thus, these are preserved for buffalos in the dry season feeding through the process of ensiling or anaerobic fermentation.
Silage, the output of ensiling, ensures the sufficient supply and quality of feedstuff for carabaos regardless of weather conditions and location. Silage is also a roughage source that provides high energy and high protein to the animal.
The Japanese scientist said that an average buffalo can eat 40-60 kilograms of silage per day. If farmers are able to produce the silage themselves, a kilo of silage will only cost P0.60, but an be marketed at P1.50 to P1.75 per kilo.
Dr. Fujihara, at one time, taught Filipino agriculture and animal science students on animal nutrition and even sent some of them to pursue their doctoral degree in Japan. One of them was Dr. Orden.
Being an expert in animal nutrition, specifically mineral nutrition, Dr. Fujihara examined the different soil composition in Luzon to determine if there is a deficiency of macro and micro minerals in the soil.
His studies, done in the past two decades, in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia (Sumatra), were on the improvement of mineral nutrition – mainly trace elements in grazing goats.