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Friendship and the Mitra Lines
By AGF
August 5, 2008
Updated June 18, 2009
Four years ago when my son Art was starting Alaminos Goat Farm, he was having a hard time sourcing female goats, so I helped him out. I decided to contact my network of friends from way back during my cattle feedlot days and the first person who came into my mind was Dado Mitra, the son of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. We went to his farm in Santo Tomas, Batangas to buy some goats.
I remember in the nineties during our cattle feedlot days, Dado brought home from Australia two Purebred Anglo Nubian Bucks from Sydney on board a Qantas Airways flight. He used it to improve his Anglo Nubian stocks.
Dado welcomed us to his farm in Santo Tomas, he said that for me and for old times sake, I could pick the best five Anglo Nubian Does from his breeding stock at Php 5,000 pesos each. I asked Dado where his imported Anglo Nubian Bucks where and he said they are gone already.
At that time, I never imagined I have created a very good impression among my peers in the industry. It is only now that I realized the friendship I have developed and their high regard for me. Imagine picking five of the best Anglo Nubian does from Dado’s stock.
The five original Anglo Nubian does that came from Dado Mitra were very prolific and became the foundation of our Anglo Nubian stock. At the start we bred them to AGF Sodel a purebred Anglo Nubian buck. The introduction of two imported Purebred Anglo Nubian bucks from Australia, AGF Louca Darwyn and AGF Edgar in 2007 further improved the Mitra Line, which we fondly call them.
Our Mitra Line continue to improve to this day through selection and the bucks we produced from this line continues to be our top seller. We are proud of our Mitra Line Does which is always sold out when we offer them for sale.
The Mitra Line does from this improved lines are being used as cornerstone of our three year breeding program to breed a Philippine dairy goat. They are bred to imported Purebred Saanen bucks from Australia. We have named the product of this breeding program Alaminos Mitra Saanen (AMS) cross. We are looking for a locally bred dairy milking goats with a 300 hundred days lactation period and a daily milk production of at least 2 liters. Adaptabilty to the tropical condition in the Philippines is also a factor being considered in this breeding program.
A limited number of the AMS cross are on the milking line and being obeserved if they will do a 300 days lactation period. They have shown big potentials in terms of growth rate and physical appearances.
Just to show how prolific the Mitra line is, on December 25, 2006 a Mitra doe gave birth to five female kids and all five are now in our breeding pens. Four have successfully kidded already adding more Mitra line to our stock.The Mitra lines are prolific and are good looking Anglo Nubians which has the height, length and mothering ability which one would look for in a good breeding stock. The Mitra line is one of the best performers and money makers in our farm.
Last year it was payback time when Dado bought two bucks from our farm, a purebred Boer and an F4 Anglo Nubian Buck. We gave him a 35% discount from the our listed price as a sign of gratitude for allowing us to select five of the best from his breeding herd in 2004. In the future, if Dado will be needing an Anglo Nubian buck or two we will share with him the best Anglo Nubian buck available we have produced in the farm.
Dado paid us a visit this March 2009, looking for Mitra Line Does to augment his stocks, we decided instead to give him as a gift AGF Sodel. AGF Sodel is the original purebred Anglo Nubian buck we used to breed the original Mitra line does we got from him when we started breeding in 2005. We adviced him to use it to breed his Anglo Nubian does and next year when he has produced doelings from that breeding , we would look for a good Mitra Line buck from AGF Darwyn line.
We sold Dado two heads Mitra Line doelings, he wanted to buy more but because of prior commitment to other buyers we had to decline his offer.
As I look back I realized that the best things in life is not all about money, it is about the real friends and friendship you developed through the years. Friends who will extend their helping hands when you are in need. Dado, Thank You for sharing with us your beautiful Anglo Nubian stocks and very prolific well bred Mitra line herd.
Art continues to use them to this day as source of his Branded Mitra Line herd bred to AGF Darwyn and AGF Edgar.
Watch a video entitled Dairy Goat Farming in the Philippines, Yes it can be Done at
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