The Department of Agriculture – Ilocos Region thru the Corn Banner Program, recently conducted a 2-day Corn Livestock Integrated Farming System Training cum Village Type Feed Mixing and Silage Processing which aims to provide technical knowledge to corn farmers and livestock raisers in cultivating corn to achieve optimum yield and lessen their cost of production per hectare.

A total of 54 out of 40 targeted farmer-participants which included senior citizens, actively participated in the said training held on August 18-19, 2022 at Brgy. Guiguinabang, San Juan, La Union.

As a way to improve their productivity and raise further their income in corn production and livestock raising, the participants were also taught how to make their own local feed formulation for swine, poultry and other small and large ruminants utilizing their own corn harvest, thus reducing their cost of production per bag by about 40% as compared to when they use commercial feeds to raise their animals.

Other related topics discussed in the training include pest and diseases of corn and livestock, corn seed morphology, corn livestock Integration, cultural practices of corn including the use of Site Specific Nutrient Management or SSNM, silage processing, prevention and control of aflatoxin, feed formulation and hands-on feed mixing.

The participants gave a satisfied rating on the conduct of the said activity as they learned the importance and benefits of being able to formulate their own feeds at a lesser cost by utilizing corn as main ingredient in their animal feeds.

As part of concluding the activity, the participants interestingly came up with the theme “Sa Barangay Guiguinabang, lahat Makikinabang dahil sa buong San juan kami ay Lamang.”, to carry on their group’s new found empowerment as drivers of agricultural development in their community.##

(Article contribution from Corn Banner Program, Leo Bungubong)