Improvement of Livestock Production in Crop-Animal Systems in ...

gaining in importance, and significant expansion has occurred in the Luzon and Visayas island groups. LagunaProvince (southern Tagalog region) has the largest population of ducks.Animal production systemsRuminants are associated with annual food crop and perennial tree crop systems. Stall-feeding, tethering andfree grazing are practised in the Philippines. In 1993, about 8.5% of the total cattle population was found inthe commercial sector in intensive systems such as feedlots. The share of this sector has declined from about11% in the early 1980s due to security problems, uncertainty associated with the Comprehensive AgrarianLand Reform Law, and a lack of long-term credit. However, these factors have also provoked a structuralshift from ranching systems to feedlot operations.There are three main production systems for pigs. The smallholder system using native and crossbredanimals, the smallholder semi-commercial system using improved breeds, and the intensive commercialsystem using improved breeds, high-quality concentrate feeds and disease-control measures. Traditionalsmallholder production involves scavenger systems associated with the feeding of root crops, householdwaste and the limited use of concentrates. Pigs are sometimes associated with rice and aquaculture.Although chicken are widespread in scavenger systems, semi-intensive smallholder production (up to500 layers or 1000 broilers) is expanding rapidly, especially in the regions of western Visayas and western,northern and central Mindanao. Intensive commercial chicken production is very advanced and is based onthe availability of hybrid breeds, the use of concentrate feeds based on maize and soyabean, and the use ofvaccines and drugs to control diseases. Ducks are raised mainly in smallholder systems in flooded rice fieldsand fed household wastes and limited concentrates. Intensive production in more confined systems, whererations consist of rice bran and soyabean meal, is on the decline. A system not adequately developed is theintegration of ducks with fish and vegetables.Feed resourcesFeed resources for ruminants are abundant. Native pastures are available on roadsides, on wasteland, in uplandareas deforested by shifting cultivation, and under perennial tree crops such as the coconut. The native grassesare of poor quality and generally support low carrying capacities, approximately 0.17–0.33 ruminant units(RU)/ha (one RU for buffaloes = 1.0; cattle = 0.8; small ruminants = 0.1). Systems such as tethering and stallfeeding may limit roughage intake in ruminants for different reasons. The diverse cropping patterns generatea wide range of crop residues and AIBP. Sevilla (1994) has estimated that there is a total feed balance of 4.9t of dry matter per RU in the Philippines, which could support an additional 11.3 million RU of cattle,buffaloes and small ruminants.There is considerable potential to further utilise the vegetation under perennial tree crops such as thecoconut. The integration of small ruminants with the coconut is arguably the easiest because of minimaldisruption to the management of the crop and the smaller fluctuations in the availability of herbage over timethrough shading.Animal health and diseasesDiseases occurring in the Philippines are listed by Campbell (1992). The most important health problems forcattle and buffaloes are foot-and-mouth disease, haemorrhagic septicaemia and anthrax. The former is a majorlimitation for smallholders who depend on the use of draft power for land preparation and haulage. Parasiticdiseases that occur in ruminants include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, trypanosomiasis and fascioliasis.Foot-and-mouth disease also occurs in pigs, but may be less important for smallholders as the numbersproduced per farm are low although, overall, such systems account for 83% of total pig numbers. However,foot-and-mouth disease in pigs can be transmitted to large ruminants. The mortality of beef cattle insmallholder systems is relatively high (10–60% compared to 0.6% for commercial herds).Vaccination ofpoultry against Newcastle disease is not practised at the smallholder level and high mortality rates haveresulted from outbreaks of the disease.