99.77% of livestock in Guimaras raised in backyard farms

Majority of the livestock raised in Guimaras came from backyard farms, accounting for 99.77 percent (55,928 heads), while 0.23% (129 heads) were from commercial farms.

This is based on the livestock inventory conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as of January 1, 2023.

Backyard farms were consistently dominated by swine, accounting for 40.11 percent on the average for four comparative survey periods (2020- 2023).

“Swine backyard inventory reached 23,081 heads in January 2020, sharing 37.52 percent to the total livestock backyard inventory, progressively improving every year – 38.04% contribution in 2021 with 23,257 heads, 41.95% in 2022 with 23,187 heads, and 42.94% in January 2023 with 24,018 heads,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare added that backyard cattle posted the second highest inventory in 2020 and 2021 with 13,994 and 14,212 heads, respectively, accounting for 22.75% and 23.24% of the tally, correspondingly.

But in 2022-2023, it was outnumbered by goat with 13,746 and 14,424 heads, respectively, comprising one-fourth of the total backyard livestock.

“In four consecutive years, carabao continuously showed decreasing trends, from a share of 18.00% (11,070 heads) in January 2020, it continuously went down to 14.09% or 7,882.00 heads in 2023,” Losare said.

Losare said that after the pandemic year (2020), livestock inventory continued to drop year over year.

The decline reached -3.85% in 2021, -12.15% in 2022, before recovering with a growth of 1.31% in 2023. Although there has been an increase in 2023, the level is still lower by 9,447 heads compared to 2020.

Meanwhile, the total number of animals raised from commercial farms decreased by 53.93% in 2021 and by -96.57% in 2022.

In the same manner, the number of livestock raised on backyard farms decreased over time, with a -10.15% reduction in 2022 over its 2020 level.

But in 2023, on both farms, livestock raised on backyard farms increased by 1.19% and 104.76% on commercial farms compared to 2022.

“In 2022-2023 only swine were raised on commercial farms with 63 and 129 heads, respectively, while on January 1 (2020-2021) inventory, there were 3,990 and 1,838 heads raised on commercial farms, comprised of cattle, goats, and swine. No carabaos on commercial farms were raised,” Losare said.