For Datu Rolando G. Melendez, becoming a dairy farmer wasn’t a personal choice at the start. Credit goes to the owner of the cows that he took care of in the early 1980s.
He recalled that in 1983, the Philippine Dairy Corporation brought imported cows to Barangay Dalwangan, Malaybalay City. However, almost all of the animals later died. Some of the calves, which were island-born and hence already acclimatized, were given to the care of PDC workers.
“I had no interest in dairy farming. But my employer who saw that dairy cows can thrive in Kibuwa entrusted me with two cows. He assured me I would not be liable in the event that the animals died. All he told me was just to take care of them,” he said.
Kibuwa is a farming village of Barangay Impalutao in Impasugong, Bukidnon where Datu Lando currently resides. It is around five kilometers from Dalwangan.
“I was a farm worker earning 180 pesos per day. I didn’t expect to earn from dairy cows. My house only had 12 iron sheets for roofing. But my employer assured me, ‘This house of yours will become bigger, and you’ll be able to give your children one motorcycle each’,” Datu Lando recalled with amusement.
He said that with the price of raw milk at only 10 pesos in 2010, he had doubts that his employer’s words would come true. It was his employer who bought the milk and processed it. “I harvested 16 to 18 liters per day. But if he could not come to get the milk, I had to discard it because I have no means of transport to deliver it to him.”
“Since the price was only 10 pesos per liter, I didn’t collect the payment for three months until it reached 15,000 pesos. It was a big amount at that time. My wife exclaimed, ‘Hala, kwarta na man na (Hey, that’s money already)’ and told me we should go into the selling business.”
It was then that he realized that dairy farming can help a Lumad like him. He said it has helped him send his children to school. Two of them are presently in college. “And, I have four motorcycles now,” he said, recalling what his employer had told him.
As regards feeding techniques, Datu Lando said he is using a combination of what he has been applying since starting 16 years ago as a dairy farmer and what he has learned from trainings. He said the dairy mentors training and the assistance from Central Mindanao University have expanded his knowledge about the proper way to feed milking cows.
“I can get 20 liters from each of my cows with healthy forage and by giving them enough water even if there’s no feeds. I would advise my fellow dairy farmers to take care of their forage so they can get high milk production. The amount of feed is useless if the forage is not healthy or overmature,” he said.
[Datu Lando is right in saying that overmature forage should not be given to animals. Forage maturation is associated with a decrease in the nutrient content, digestibility, and subsequent nutritional value. As a plant matures the contents of water, protein, nonstructural carbohydrates (i.e., energy), minerals, and vitamins decrease.]
He said farming has become easier with technology such as silage-making. He, however, advised that farmers should not abandon traditional cow-rearing practices that have proven to be effective such as giving healthy forage.
[This story is featured in A Handbook on Small-Scale Dairy Farming: The Milky Way to Progress, a book written by MindaNews editor H. Marcos C. Mordeno and published by the National Confederation of Cooperatives with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The book was released on October 29, 2025.]
