“We want a cow who will report herself.” This is what a key official of the National Dairy Authority said, stressing that the technology will play a big role in raising Philippine dairy farming and production.

“That's why one of the things we want to. We want a cow who will report herself. All her records will be reported by the cow herself. We will be keying the censors, but this will be mostly for our stockfarms,” NDA administrator, Dr. Gabriel Lagamayo, said in an interview with DAILY TRIBUNE’s Straight Talk digital show on Wednesday.

The veterinarian said the prospect sensor will detect the cow’s status, including if she's sick or in heat.

He added: “One of the things we want to develop later on is for the cooperatives to pay for the Wi-Fi, and we will provide them with the hardware that will detect signs in the cows.”

Lagamayo said that they will start implementing the cow censors once the first NDA stockfarm is established.

Stock farm construction is ongoing at General Tinio in Nueva Ecija, Ubay in Bohol province, and Agusan del Sur.

At present, the NDA is in talks with dairy farmers and federations regarding the installation of Wi-Fi and the agency's provision of detectors, noting that the agency will collaborate with other local offices to address farms' problems with connectivity and a lack of cell sites.

“We'll be surprised that we now have farms that were able to put it [Wi-Fi] up on their own because they saw the value.”

"One of the challenges of being a veterinarian is that your patient cannot talk to you. They can't tell you if she’s sick or whatever. We will be using this technology to bridge that gap,” he added.

Cow provision

Lagamayo said that the government provides dairy farmers with cows on a conditional grant basis since the dairy animals range from P120,000 to P150,000.

“You have to follow certain conditions before we give you animals, and you have to maintain those. You have to follow strictly the things that we want you to do.”

For every dairy cooperative and association, the NDA provides approximately 50 animals.

Low supply, high demand

The NDA said that over 7,000 dairy animals produced 17 million liters of milk last year, but it was insufficient to meet local demands.

To address the lack of supply, Lagamayo said there is a need to increase the population of the right breed of dairy animals.

“Unfortunately, it’s about 32,000. It’s mixed; there are small ones, there are big ones, there are females, and there are males. But of that number of cattle, more than 7,000 were milked in 2023, and that 7,000 gave us 17 million liters of milk,” Lagamayo said. “If we add more animals, then the production will be even bigger.”

Domestic ordinary cows are primarily for meat.