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Monday, March 13, 2006
Hog raisers start use of organic feed
SAGADA, Mountain Province -- Pig raisers in three northern barangays of this upland town are now embracing a new technology on hog feeds using locally available inputs and contributing to more profit.
Introduced by Catholic Church priest Marion Buyagawan of Barangay Kilong in the town, the organic feed is processed by cutting and mixing together camote tops, banana stalks, rice bran and corn grits, and fermented by mold for four days.
The pig raisers can produce their own mold by wrapping cooked rice with Manila paper inserted inside a bamboo tube then buried for four days to allow molds to grow.
With the growth of molds for four days and another four days for the ingredients mixed with mold to ferment, it takes at least eight days to produce the organic feed.
Pig raisers usually feed their animals with cut camote leaves or cooked banana stalks, which they mix with commercial feeds, costing around P1,000 per sack, depending on the brand.
Considering the high cost of commercial feeds, which is eating most of the supposed profit for raising pigs, backyard hog raisers in Aguid, Pide and Fedilisan are realizing lesser expenses with this new technology.
A hog raiser said there should be at least four pigs to raise to break even or realize a little profit if they would use pure commercial feeds. A kilo of live pig today costs P85-P90 while dressed meat is sold from P130-P140 a kilo.
A report said more hog growers are shifting to this new technology because of the low capital input and the increasing demand of organically raised pigs in the market. The meat of pigs fed with the organic feeds are also said to be tastier than those nourished with commercial feeds.
(March 13, 2006 issue)
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