PHILIPPINE CARABAO CROSSBREEDING RESEARCH

Report on the FAO/UNDP/Philippine Government Project PHI/78/017

J. Hodges 1/

The Philippines has about 2.9 million carabaos, 99 percent of which are in the hands of smallholder farmers, with 1-2 heads or more integrated closely with their farming systems. These are mainly used as draught animals. The size and weight of these animals have been gradually declining since the farmers have been castrating the best bulls as work animals and leaving the weaker small sized bulls for breeding. Unknowingly, natural selection for smaller size has been going on. They are poor in milk and meat production. During Phase I (1981-86) the objectives of the project were:

1. To develop a strain/type of carabao that will be superior for draught, milk and meat under the backyard production scheme of smallholder farmers and commercial ranch production systems.
2. To generate the appropriate technologies of mating, feeding, care and management, herd health programme and extension strategies best suited for various types of crops-livestock integrated farming systems within the context of small farmer environment and resources.
3. To meet the country's animal draught power requirement in the present energy crisis and nutritional demands for milk and meat of the increasing human population.
4. To develop manpower training programmes to enhance the technical capabilities of personnel in various governments and private agencies involved in carabao production.
5. To build-up the research and training facilities of the pilot institutions through the assistance of UNDP in order to accelerate the development and improvement of the carabao as an important component of Philippine agriculture.

During the first three years (1981-1983) the foundation breeding stock was purchased (518 heads) and bred with the exotic semen of Murrah, Nili-Ravi and Thai bulls imported from abroad. So far 125 crossbreds have been produced in the centre both by artificial breeding and natural mating at the institutional herd as well as with the farmer cooperators. During Phase I, 300 crossbreds are to be produced and their performance has to be tested for draught, meat and milk production. An artificially induced breeding scheme has been successfully developed for smallholder farmers to increase the calf crop from carabao kept in smaller units and showing silent heat. This technology is being tested in the field.

The results so far on the crossbreds raised have shown that F1 crosses of Phil-Ravi (Native Carabao x Nili-Ravi) and Phil-Murrah (Native Carabao x Murrah) grow 42 percent faster than native carabao up to 24 months of age both under smallholder and ranch management conditions. The draughtability is the same as that of native at the same body weight without any physiological stress in the F, crossbreds. Milk production is about 2 1/2 times (1300 litres/300 days) more than the natives (550 litres/300 days). However, the number of animals is still low and confirmation of these preliminary results is awaited from larger numbers of pipeline animals.

Based on the above work, the Philippine Government is planning a 10-year National Carabao Development Project to undertake an action programme on large-scale crossbreeding of the native carabao to produce about seven hundred thousand crossbreds. Induced artificial breeding technology, generated by the project would be used in mass crossbreeding. Carabaos having long generation interval would need more time to produce enough offspring to serve as foundation stock for a new strain or type of carabao/buffaloes that would be superior for draught, milk and meat. Production of sufficient F₁s of various breeds (Nili-Ravi, Murrah and Thai) may take another 2 years and the evaluation of these F₁s may take another 3 to 4 years, before inter se matings of F₂s may be achieved. Hence, a minimum of 15 years may be required to produce a significant number of F₂s with stabilized characteristics for superior draught, milk and meat qualities. Hence, the second phase has been planned in order to make an objective evaluation of the performance of F₁ .

The project indicates the type of approach which will involve the use of different genotypes from various countries in improving animal production in developing countries in the future.

^1/ Animal Production Officer, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Rome.