Goat semen in good use

By TASHNY SUKUMARAN
tashny@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Marditech Corporation, a subsidiary of the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), said it had never wasted its imported goat and cattle semen for its artifical insemination exercise.

“Based on the current storage facility and technology, the semen can be kept for 99.99 years and beyond,” said Marditech Corp group chief executive officer Anas Ahmad Nasarudin in a statement to The Star.

He said the paper had mistakenly interpreted the Auditor-General's report on Oct 16 that some RM486,100 worth of semen were wasted as they remained unused.

“Procurements made were according to financial policy and procedures and approval based on delegation of powers and authority within the company,” he said, adding that the selection of high quality animals and timing were key critical success factors (CSF) to conduct the insemination.

“Therefore, there is no issue of wastage,” he said, adding that semen and embryo utilisation was carried out on a planned basis by the National Animal Embryo Centre based on identified CSFs.

“In addition, foreign exchange risk is mitigated through a specified number of purchases,” he said, clarifying the A-G's Report that Marditech spent RM1.39mil from 2007 to last year for insemination and embryonic transfer involving cattle and goats.

Regarding the reported purchase of some 1,212 straws of goat semen from its nucleus farm in Kluang, Johor, he said the semen was not “bought” but manually extracted from “selected high quality animals” by their own experts and no expenditure was incurred in the process.

Anas Ahmad also clarifed that the average cost of goat semen was RM150 per straw, and not RM250 as reported.

He added that besides the 1,000 straws of goat semen from the Kalahari breed, there were straws of semen from others, such as the Boer and Savanah breeds.

He also stated that the targets of 81.2% for cattle and 74.2% for goats were not for the insemination exercise but for the total population of cattle and goats, regardless of techniques applied and this includes multiplication by natural breeding.

He also clarifed that the farms mentioned in the A-G's report were the multiplier or satellite farms and not the farm in Kluang.

Regarding the alleged lack of experienced managers and proper infrastructure that caused low birth rates in some multiplier farms, he said these were not the main factors.

“However, floods which hit several multiplier farms in 2008 and 2009 caused detrimental effects and a high death rate was recorded,” he added.

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Goat's Milk Ice Cream

SIBU: TYC Goat and Livestock Sdn Bhd is taking an innovative step forward in promoting and creating awareness on the health benefits of organic goat’s milk through their homemade goat’s milk ice-cream.
Speaking to The Borneo Post on Sunday night, farm owner Loh Yu Yee said the idea came about upon realising that some parents were having a hard time in persuading their children to drink goat’s milk.
“Goat’s milk is one of the least favourite drinks among children, but they sure do love ice-cream.
“So, because goat’s milk is so rich in nutrition, I need to come up with something they love,” she said.
After some research and trials and errors, she finally came up with their original goat’s milk ice-cream.

When she first introduced the flavour at the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) in July, it was a big hit.
“There were long queues for the goat’s milk ice-cream which was all snapped up within 10 minutes.
“We just wanted to see the response, so we only brought 50 cups on our first day of the sale, we did not know it would be sold out in less than 10 minutes,” she recalled.
Added Loh: “We brought in 100 cups on the second day. Again, they were sold out in less than 10 minutes.”
“The third time we brought in 800 cups, and we sold them in two sessions, one started at 7pm and the other, 8.30pm.
“In both sessions, the ice-cream was sold out in less than one hour,” she said.
That gave Loh the confidence to research and try out new flavours at home.
The result was five new flavours — Horlick, Milo, chocolate, coffee and green tea.

Last Sunday night, they introduced these flavours with free ice-cream testing session at a hotel.
The 68 people who participated in the testing session did not just test the ice-cream but were entertained with interactive games and gifts.
“The purpose of the testing was to receive feedback from the participants and through their feedback, we would see what we need to improve on the flavours,” she explained.

From the feedback, most think that the Horlick flavour is the best.
Loh said they would start selling these new flavours on Sept 16 at the Town Square from 7pm until 10.30pm.
According to her, she reduced the sugar content of her goat’s milk ice-cream by 50 per cent to maintain its nutritious level.

Loh said she was already contemplating introducing ice-creams with fruit flavours.
“It’s a bit challenging because fresh fruits have water,” she pointed out.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/08/28/farm-sells-goats-milk-as-ice-cream/#ixzz24n6sipgg

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