I am back to what I love doing in the farm – the breeding of chicken and goats and planting of jackfruits and Moringa.
I do the breeding selection myself and I decide what would be planted and where, contrary to the belief that since I have multiple tasks as a government official, I delegate these tasks to my farm workers.
On weekends, I go home to the farm and transform myself from a Cabinet Secretary to a farmer.
In the breeding yards of my gamefowls,I could identify all of my broodcocks, including their genetic lineage.
I keep a record book of all the matings for the season where the markings are indicated.
After a long absence from goat breeding, I have also started rearing three breeds of goats – Boer for meat and Anglo Nubian and La Mancha for dairy.
I used to have over 300 goats in the farm and my Boer buck, Rocky, and his offsprings, a buckling and doeling, romped off with the Championship Trophies in the NGSCP Goat Show in Cagayan de Oro in 2007.
Rocky is long gone but his genes could still be found in many outstanding Boer farms in Mindanao.
I have acquired new breeding materials from my friend, American Boer breeder Vickie Geddes of the Tehachapi Boers of Tehachapi, California.
I also have a few Anglo Nubians from the Six M Galaxy line and La Manchas which I acquired from my friend, Jim Clem of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
It will take sometime before I could reach the 300-head level I had years ago but I could get there again.
It is just a matter of waiting or “tiyaga” as they say it in Pilipino.
This is one trait of a farmer that many do not understand and it is called patience.
It takes a year before a goat is ready for mating, at least 6 months before a pullet is ready to lay eggs, three years for the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit to bear fruits and five years for the Longkong Lanzones to be productive.
So, to those who believe that agriculture growth should be measured on a quarterly basis, you better learn how to breed animals and plant crops.
Only then will you truly understand agriculture.
(The first frame shows my 2007 National Champion buck Rocky. He is long gone but he is fondly remembered as the best specimen of a meat goat we ever raised in the farm. The other photos show the Boers I am now breeding in the farm. Other photos show the long fruits of the Indian Moringa, the Manok Pinoy in the yard and the Abuyog Sweet Jackfruit.)
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