By Honor Blanco Cabie
MANILA, — Luis and his newsmen-friends treated themselves to what they hoped was a sumptuous weekend lunch — which included lamb chops — at a posh hotel in the capital.
In the far northwest of the country that day, Robert was at his cruising speed for his daily routine although his son was getting married in the Aglipayan church.
As is the custom of the northwest, the groom’s family looks after the food needs of all guests, which very normally include practically every member of the barangay.
Robert was cocksure that with a few goats, four pigs and some sheep — apart from baskets of fresh vegetables straight from the farm — his family would not be embarrassed at all.
But neither Luis nor Robert may be aware that the average meat eater consumes the meat of 21 sheep over a lifetime, not including 4-5 lambs who die before reaching slaughter age.
Each one of these, according to old hands in the industry, was a gentle, friendly individual with his or her own unique personality, just the same as a pet dog or cat.
The difference between Luis and Robert is that the former does not have a herd but has the thick wads to buy for himself and friends the elegant lamb chops – in different recipes.
For instance, they can have the lamb shoulder chops braised in pomegranate juice, then topped with pumpkin seeds and mint; the thick Irish stew; lamb with sautéed vegetables; the grilled lamb chops with curry, apple and raisin sauce; or the grilled lamb with brown sugar glaze, a delicately sweet brown sugar rub which makes one of the tastiest chops Luis and his friends will ever eat.
Up north, there are no such things as are prepared in air conditioned dining rooms of a five-star hotel.
“Kaldereta,” “pinespes” or the more familiar “pinapaitan,” the “kilawen a karnet’ karnero” and “adobo” are as good for anybody’s plate and palate who attends the wedding of Robert’s first born, who helped his father look after their nearly 300 head (editors: correct) of sheep since he was an 8-year-old while attending on the side their garlic plants in thick mulching hay.
The sale of nearly 250 in the past year had given the zealous sheep raising family about a million pesos from their herd.
The family also raises goats – the father-and-son team discloses there is not much difference in raising sheep and goats.
The two in fact raise both ruminants in the same farm in their barangay, in the shadow of Bantay Simminublan in the wooded hills of the northwest, which has enough weeds and silage.
The sheep can be easy to shepherd since it can eat any kind of grass, including corn stover. Some suggest napier, para grass, centrosema, marunggay (Moringa oleifera) and kumpitis or ipil-ipil (Laucaena glauca).
Fodder can also include green leaves, cut grass, legumes, while concentrates can be made from tubers (cassava, sweet potato, or potato), grains (corn, sorghum, soybean, peanut) and animal protein (fish flour, blood flour, skim milk, and meat flour).
The daily feed consumption of a lamb should be 3.1 per cent of its body weight.
Concentrates can be given to a level of about 2.5 per cent of body weight daily. Clean drinking water should be available at all times, according to sources.
The major source of feed for sheep were unimproved pastures (83.3 per cent) and improved grasses in both open (13.2 per cent) and under plantation (3.5 per cent).
Most farmers (77.4 per cent) practiced continuous grazing while some 48 per cent of the farmers provided concentrate supplementation and 46.5 per cent gave crop residues.
Majority of the farmers practiced selection of breeder stock but did not practice culling of stocks.
Sources say the farmer-shepherds selected the ram rather than the ewe for breeding purposes.
Infectious diseases (diarrhea, pneumonia and hemorrhagic septicemia), metabolic disorder (bloat) and accidents (dog and snake bites) were the major causes of sheep mortality.
The preventive health practices adopted by the farmers were deworming (46.5 per cent), vaccination (15.8 per cent) and isolation of sick animals (14.1 per cent).
Most raisers (84.2 per cent) kept their animals in sheds mainly made up of local materials, except for roofing where 43.8 per cent used galvanized iron sheets.
The floor space allowance varied between 1-2 sq m/animal. Other husbandry practices were weaning, identification, tail docking flushing, hoof trimming, castration and shearing.
Also recently, Manila and Canberra entered into an agreement where the latter would export Australian goats and sheep to the Philippines which certainly will augment the existing local goat herd of about four million (2007 figures) and sheep flock of about 35,000 (2003 figures).
Industry sources say that while Filipinos, on the main, do not generally eat meat lambs, they say there is a growing demand for mutton for export.
Sheep contributes to food production, rural employment and gross national product by converting roughages into meat, wool and skin.
But it may take some time before the government will train its eye on this agribusiness venture.
Industry sources say this technology of sheep raising, best suited to small or medium sized farms, has excellent potentials in this country of 98 million people.
After eight months, sources say the ewes can already be impregnated by the rams. In five months, they would already give birth.
If the sheep reaches the optimum weight of 18 kilograms, they can already be sold.
In recent years, more than 30 researches on the sheep produced a framework for the national sheep research and development (R & D) program.
Three distinct groups of sheep were identified, namely: the Philippine sheep, the Barbados Blackbelly, and the crosses of the two groups, with their quantitative and qualitative traits identified.
The countries with the largest number of sheep are Australia, whose economy was built on sheep and wool, Russia, Argentina, New Zealand, India, South Africa, the United States, Turkey, Iran, Uruguay, Spain and Britain.
Sources say it will take decades before the Philippines can be in the group of these major sheep economies.