“For those that are involved in the animal industry, all of us know that one of the major challenges for all commodities is the very high cost of production. Often we would say that feed is the highest contributor to that cost,” said Dr. Rommel Sulabo of the University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Animal Science (UPLB-IAS) during the inception meeting of project, titled Nutritional Value of Different Sorghum Varieties for Swine and Poultry, on 26 April 2024 in Los Baños, Laguna.
The meeting convened the project team, administrative and finance staff from UPLB; representatives from the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR); and industry stakeholders Pilmico and Cargill to level set expectations on the project implementation and ensure its efficient execution.
Funded by DA-BAR, the PhP 9M-worth project aims to produce information and package of technology for the effective application of grain sorghum as an alternative feed ingredient in swine and poultry diets in the country. Ultimately, the goal is to provide the animal industry with an alternative and cheaper feed ingredient that would consequently reduce the production cost in livestock raising.
Dr. Sulabo explained that the animal industry is highly dependent on corn, with most of the feeds produced having corn as primary cereal grain. The problem with this is that corn is very expensive, on top of the challenges plaguing the industry — fall armyworm infestation and susceptibility to drought. When corn prices spike, the animal industry turns to importing wheat. However, this move also proves to be volatile with the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, with the latter considered as a major supplier of wheat. This puts pressure on the industry and surfaces the need to develop feed autonomy.
“The value of sorghum is that it is a crop that is drought tolerant. It has ratooning ability. This means that once you harvest the grains, you do not have to re-plant because it will produce another set of cropping. It’s also dual purpose as the grains can go to the monogastric industry, while the silage that can be produced from sorghum can go to the ruminant industry,” Dr. Sulabo explained in a mix of English and Filipino.
Cris Paglinawan of Pilmico commended the timeliness of this project’s implementation and raised some points on the possible direction and queries on the project implementation.
In response to his queries, Dr. Sulabo explained: “We do know that there are some difficulties in the processing of sorghum. I think this was the previous experience of the industry when it was promoted to us by the US Graining Council. Hindi natin alam paano mag-process ng sorghum dahil maliliit ang grains kaya lumulusot talaga sa hammer mill. Although there are now some processing developments that use a hammer mill to grind [sorghum]. The advantage of the roller mill [remains as it] has uniform grinding compared to the hammer mill.”
He reassured the industry stakeholders that previous research endeavors showed the possibility of completely replacing wheat and corn with grain sorghum, and that succeeding projects will undertake feeding trials and feeding demonstrations — to which Dr. Sulabo hopes to collaborate with Pilmico and Cargill.
Meanwhile Alexander De Leon of Cargill signified interest in future collaborations.
“This is a very exciting project. I see a lot of opportunities for us to collaborate. We can probably combine our experiences in using the ingredient. The bottomline, I think, is the opportunity to help the industry to lower down the cost,” De Leon said.