Increased number of dairy animals needed to boost local milk production - NDA

The National Dairy Authority said on Wednesday that more than seven thousand dairy animals were milked in 2023, which was able to produce 17 million liters of milk.

In an interview, an NDA key official said that in the Philippines, the animals with the right breed are about 90,000, and one-third are cattle.

“Unfortunately, in the number I said, it's about 32,000; it's mixed; there are small ones; there are big ones; there are females; there are males; but of that number in cattle, more than 7,000 were milked in 2023, and that 7,000 gave us 17 million liters of milk,” NDA Administrator Gabriel Lagamayo said to the DAILY TRIBUNE.

“If we add more animals, then the production will be even bigger," he added.

Lagayamo said there is a need to increase the number of the right breed of dairy animals to increase dairy production, noting that the country's ordinary cows are mostly for slaughter and meat purposes.

“So what we do is infuse the breed through the procurement and distribution of animals, or we do artificial insemination. So the AI isn't only artificial intelligence, but it's also artificial instantiation.”

Challenges

Lagamayo said that the number of dairy animals in the country has climbed over the past five years.

NDA data shows that from 2018 to 2023, there has been a 45 percent increase in the dairy animal population.

“It's increasing. Unfortunately, we can't keep up with the increase in human population. People multiply faster than cattle,” Lagamayo lamented.

He also said that improved corn silage production will also help boost milk production.

“In terms of our source of the right feed, we still need to increase it, but corn silage production is very promising for us, so we have seen the opportunity that if we improve corn silage production, milk production will increase, and the better we can manage the animals,” he said. “That's what we do traditionally. The cow will be tied, where it will be tied, what the cow will reach when it is tied, and how long the rope is—that's all you can expect the cow to eat.”

He went on by using the analogy of a lactating mother to describe the development of animals. The NDA official said that when a mother is about to give birth, people feed her nutritious foods, such as broth and vegetables, to be able to also give nutrition to her baby.

“In terms of nutrition, we need to provide the nutrition so that she can also give a lot of milk to a lactating cow.”

According to Lagamayo, the biggest challenge faced by dairy today is the issue of the number of animals on the ground.

With this, the NDA will maximize government funds by establishing more stock farms that will produce animals to be distributed to farmers.

“Another thing, in terms of the productivity of animals, that's where we're going to focus now. As I said, it's not impossible to see cows that are producing more than 15 liters a day,” he said. “As we said, our ambition now is that we should be at 5,00 liters, which is produced by one cow for every season.”

The NDA earlier expressed its target of raising the country’s milk output to 80 million liters by 2028, which is 'a small portion of the projected demand of 2.143 million metric tons by that time.’

Lagamayo said that a ‘dramatic increase’ in animals in the milking line, improved dairy productivity, expansion of distribution networks, construction of additional dairy-related infrastructure, and promotion of the consumption of local milk and dairy products are necessary to raise milk output 2.5 times in the next five years.

Cattle production last year reached 17,850 metric tons, which is about 0.8% of the total milk consumption of 1.937 million metric tons—1,372 metric tons higher compared to 2022.

The NDA projected that the rise in milk demand for consumption this year may reach 1.978 million metric tons.