• Submitted by: admin
• Business and Economy
• 04 / 07 / 2010

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Cuban ranchers look for alternatives to the traditional cattle feeding, unavailable due to the climate change among other reasons, by cropping pasture and using concentrated diet supplements.

These methods aim at hastening the cattle heads reaching the 420 kilogram weight the commercializing enterprises require from ranchers.

In order to achieve good results, it is necessary to work on advance during the drought season, highlighted Orlando Fariñas, owner of the La Inecita Ranch, in the Havana province municipality of San Jose de la Lajas.

We are making some food from yucca and sweet potato, mixed with some yogurt for several days which acquire a tasty flavor thus becoming a nutritive and desired food for the animals, he said.

Fariñas noted the use of sugar cane and king grass, which is harvested in the surrounding areas to the farm, to fatten bulls faster.  

The Ministry of Agriculture took on boosting production by raising the purchasing prices from private farmers, as part of its working agreements with them.

In 2009, private ranchers pork sales to the State represented 70 percent of all produced in the country, and the goal this year is to grow by 10 000 tons.

Sources from that Ministry pointed out the plan for 2010 is to collect some 300 million liters of milk, and to achieve that they are counting on established private ranchers and new comers resulting for the granting of idle lands.

Source: ACN