1st Generation Pregnant Mitra Dairy Line (MDL) with AGF Edgar as her Sire

ASG Feeding Program and the Mitra Dairy Line (MDL) Breeding Program

January 22, 2012

The past several months since mid-October of 2011, AGF website write ups were more on the ASG feeding program, less and less on the MDL breeding program. Friends were starting to asked, "how is the MDL breeding program doing? ” They told to us since we are breeder farm we should focus on writing more about our breeder goats.

The additional labor cost for the two workers who would plant, harvest and shred the indigofera would be covered by sales generated from the forage planting materials from the already well established Alaminos Salad Garden.

The key here for 2012 is to establish numbers to show goat performance in terms of milk yields, kidding and growth rate with the introduction of indigofera in the concentrate feeds for goats. If we can show an improvement in goat performance, full blast commercialization work for the Alaminos Salad Garden feeding program in tropical Philippines will be undertaken.

Kastdemur's Always Be Mine, 2010 INBA All American Junior Kid AA

Added 70 Watts Metal Hallide Lamp To Simulate Artificial Long Day During Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice 2011, AGF Adds More Lighting in Dairy Goats Pen

January 16, 2012

The annual  winter solstice occurred last December 22,  it was the  longest night and shortest day for 2011, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services  Administration (PAGASA) said.

PAGASA said nights get longer in the Philippines due to winter solstice, an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun "lying at its farthest point" south of the equator.

From our out of the box ways, we decided to add a  70 watts Metal Hallide Lamp and opened it just before the sun sets  late in the afternoon and put it off after milking at 9:00 PM. The light is put on again at 5:00 AM until the sun rises in the morning. The additional lighting would offset the longer darker nights. We would try to observe if there is a basis in the statement that the longer night’s affects temperate dairy goats milk yields.

While the Philippines is located in the Northern Hemisphere and does not have winter, it experiences colder than usual weather during this period. The winter solstice also marks the Philippine nights that are longer than daytime.

Studies suggest that in temperate countries, declining day length called photo period causes a surge in reproductive hormones and sexual activities on both bucks and does. Sexual urge remains high for at least several months and fertility is at its highest level at this time. Does the same hold true for dairy goats under tropical conditions?

There are still a lot to learn in dairying goats under the tropical condition of the Philippines. Join us as we try to unravel the peculiarities in dairying a temperate breed ( Saanen) in the tropics.

Art with New Indigofera Planted Through Direct Seeding

Milk Yields with the ASG Feeding Program

January 11, 2011

Sharing of information is the cornerstone of AGF success in establishing its credibility in the work it is doing with the ASG feeding program. We realized that for the ASG feeding program to be successful, other farms who will follow the program can   replicate the same results we have experienced in  Alaminos. We decided that until such a time we have acquired conclusive data in terms of milk yields we will refrain from making statements about the positive effect on the inclusion of fresh shredded indigofera to the dairy and meat goats concentrate diets.

In the mean time we will focus in documenting what we are doing as we move ahead in the ASG feeding program. Focus will be on increasing the volume of indigofera in the Alaminos Salad Garden to assure supply of fresh indigofera year round to meet the demand for the ASG feeding program. We will start milk recording in March as the new milking season begins.

The window of opportunity presented itself in mid-October 2011, as the milking season was about to end to start the milking goats with the new concentrate ration that included 30% fresh shredded indigofera and palm kernel cake. It is a given that any change in feeding regimen would result to a drop in milk yields of dairy goats in lactation.

We found it prudent to start the Alaminos Salad Garden (ASG) feeding program with the inclusion of indigofera in the concentrate diet towards the end of the milking season. This would give the dairy goats more time to adapt to the new diet, the kidding season started this January and goes through up to March.

The period between October and December 2011 were challenging times for the ASG feeding program. True to form the change in feeds resulted in swings in feed consumption and milk yields. The inclusion of palm kernel cake to the diet further added to the burden for the goats to adapt to the new concentrate diet.

Using our decade long experience in feeding feedlot cattle, we resorted to increasing molasses content of the concentrate diet to improve palatability. To give the diet a contrasting  sweet and salty taste which ruminants loves,  we added salt to the diet.

The work we are doing with the ASG feeding program are work in progress, it is for the goat  raisers to decide what they think would be good for their operation. One thing is for sure though, the addition of indigofera to the feed concentrate diet resulted to lower feed cost for AGF goat operation.