Luzon farmers to get 1,591 dairy goats from Australia

Australian dairy goats are transported to a quarantine site where they will be kept for 30 days before distribution to farmer-beneficiaries. Philippine Information Agency Photo

MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga –– Some 1,591 dairy goats from Australia for Luzon farmers arrived at the Clark International Airport here late Tuesday afternoon.

Dr. Hector Baruc of the National Dairy Authority (NDA), said the goats that include Alpine, Anglo-Nubian, and Saanen breeds were transported from Perth, Australia, through Qantas Airways 747 cargo aircraft.

Baruc is the NDA’s project coordinator on the US government’s Food for Peace Act known as Public Law 480 (PL 480) that provides agricultural assistance to developing countries.

“Since last night, we have been transporting the dairy goats to a private farm in Magalang, Pampanga, where they will be quarantined for one month before distributing them to beneficiaries. We are still unloading the trucks now. We used 16 flatbed trucks to transport the goats from Clark to Magalang,” he told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Baruc said the beneficiaries of the dairy goats are farmers’ cooperatives and organizations and some rebel returnees in different parts of Luzon.

The distribution of dairy goats to qualified farmers is part of the Department of Agriculture and NDA’s “Intensified Community-Based Dairy Enterprise Development” project funded by the US under its PL 480 program.

“This project aims to develop the local dairy goat industry and boost local milk production,” Baruc said.

LZB