The gov't cattle program is full of bull

摘要

On Dec. 17, 1993, the Agriculture Depart-ment imported 1,811 head of cattle from the United States for its cattle development program, delivering them to the government's cattle stock farm in Busuanga, Palawan. This program is part of the DA's 'Medium-Term Livestock Development Program" which aims to increase the local cattle population from 1.7 million in 1993, to more than three million in 1998. Recently, the DA admitted that the imported Simbrah breed of cattle has a high mortality rate and that 17 per cent of 278 of the 1,811 imported cattle have already died due to the breed's inability to acclimatocoun-try's environmental conditions.