Mayor Virgilio Padilla of San Agustin, Isabela who is a proud owner of crossbred carabaos, is pushing for the declaration of his town as “Crossbred Carabaos Capital of the Philippines.”
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34 kilograms at birth and their female counterpart at 26.65 kilograms. The native carabaos were at 23.54 kg. and 23.42 at birth for the male and female calves, respectively. Further studies by experts showed the following facts (PCARRD, 2002): The Murrah buffalo and Philippine crosses (50:50) have relatively greater capacity to grow and produce milk than the native carabaos. At 24 months, the crossbreeds weigh 216.46 kg or 28 percent heavier than the native carabaos. In terms of draftability, there is no difference in performance between the native carabaos and Murrah grades,
In terms of milk production, the female crossbreed has potentials of 4 to 4.5 liters of milk per day per animal compared to the native’s 1.5 liters.
suggesting that introduction of Murrah buffalo blood to improve milk production does not have detrimental effect on the ability to perform work. Some mature crossbreds weigh about 700 kg compared to the native’s weight of 500 kg.
A 14-member team from the PCC at the Central Luzon State University (PCC at CLSU), PCC at CSU, Department of Agriculture, Office of the Provincial Veterinarian of Isabela, and the local government unit of San Agustin worked overtime for the AI service.
Businessing the Carabao
Seeing the early results of the AI services for the native carabaos in their town, in the following AI schedule, a total of 321 native carabaos were brought to the designated treatment place. Of this number, 193 qualified for estrus synchronization treatment while 51 were found to be in heat.