Hog Raising Tips: Stress Management

Tail-biting, ear-biting, belly rubbing are considered behavioral vices when pigs are confined in one pen.   Constant outbreaks of these vices reduce growth performance of the pigs.   Oftentimes, the predisposing factors are: poor ventilation; improper nutrition; overcrowding; and boredom.   Thus, it is necessary to give close attention to the environment, stocking rate, feed and water space, and the removal of aggressive    pigs to control the problem.

How to reduce stress during transport of weaners Read more

Raising Cattles in Backyard

Cow-Calf Operation

Cows and bulls are raised to produce calves in this type of operation. Calves are then raised until they are weaned from their dams at seven to eight months of age. After weaning, they can be sold immediately, or raised for a few more months for use as replacement stocks or sold for fattening.

The cow-calf operation is considered most challenging because the producer needs to be familiar with the reproductive phenomena, as well as the breeding and feeding systems. He should also be knowledgeable on the management practices involved in the production and maintenance of cows, bulls, and calves. Read more

Managing Heat Stress in Cattles

Most of the dairy cattle which provide the commercial milk supply in Asia are imported breeds such as Jersey and Holstein. They originated in temperate countries, and their optimum temperature range is 5-23°C. Temperatures in Asian countries are often much higher than this. In tropical countries, temperatures are generally in the thirties, and for short periods may be even higher than this.

The production of milk is directly related to the level of feed consumption. In hot weather, cattle generally reduce their feed intake. It has been estimated that at 40oC, feed intake (on a dry matter basis) is only about half that eaten by cows living in their optimum temperature range. As a result, milk production falls. Read more

Cattle Raising, Production, UMBB Technology – II

It is highly impractical if not economical to raise pure breed goats, unless the main purpose is to sell breeders. The preferred method will be to upgrade local native or grade does with pure bucks. Crossbreeds usually perform better than pure ones under local conditions. Infusion of two or more bloodlines into the native doe will elicit a better product due to hybrid vigor. Three-way crosses between the native, any of three Occidental breeds and the Nubian has produced a greatly superior animal than any of the three under our conditions.

Higher milk production should be the main consideration for it will not only mean bigger kid but also more milk for human consumption. A maximum infusion of 75% foreign bloodline must be observed to retain the natural resistance of the native. Read more

Cattle Raising, Production, UMBB Technology – I

Beef has come to seem a hazardous substance. If years of warnings about the dangers of saturated fat and heart disease weren’t enough, Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation (2001) — with its graphic and disturbing picture of the inhumane working conditions of meatpackers and the contamination from criminally rushed slaughtering and processing — made clear that it is unwise if not foolhardy to eat beef ground by anyone but yourself.

Almost all cattle raised for beef are force-fed corn (which costs less to buy than it does to grow), and the resulting stress makes it necessary to keep them on high doses of antibiotics. “Finishing” for corn-fed beef takes place on vast feedlots, where cattle raised in many parts of the world are trucked to a miserable end. Read more

Swine/Hog Raising Business Guide

Hog raising is a very popular enterprise in the Philippines such that there is a proliferation of backyard producers, which dominates the swine industry and a healthy viable commercial sector.

Despite the crises facing the swine industry, still many people are venturing in this enterprise. This manual hopes to bring appropriate technology to the interested farmers and would-be swine producers in order that they may realize profitable production and improve their quality of life.

Swine is believed to be the earliest animal to be domesticated, proven by paintings and carvings of pigs that date back to 25,000 years have been found. Swine is one of agriculture’s best sources of income and a very good source of protein.
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