Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Renante Decena yesterday named the five veterinary and dairy experts from the Negros Occidental who will be trained in New Zealand for six weeks for the Dairy Development Project of the province.

They are Jesus Villanueva, dairy farm manager at the Provincial Livestock and Breeding Center in La Granja, La Carlota; Jevi Ganancial, farm manager at the Negros First Ranch in Sta. Rosa, Murcia; Juanito Abello, dairy farm worker, Sagay Animal Breeding Center; Ronaldo Luage, agriculturist and project-in-charge of San Carlos Dairy Project; and Jesus Roberto Combate, agriculture specialist.

Decena said the training is one of the provisions after Negros Occidental entered into a memorandum of understanding with two dairy farm owners, Petrus Nicolaas Smit and Evan Gregory who will train the participants on dairying, pasture development, product marketing, and milk production and processing

The dairy owners will also provide breeder stocks, dairy equipment and supplies, technical expertise, and the technology for dairy production to the province, Decena said.

After the six-week training, the veterinary technicians will apply the technology in Negros with the supervision of the visiting dairy farm experts from New Zealand Marissa Kelly and Jacintha Konign with Mary Ann Kanwal, a veterinarian from Malaysia, Decena added.

Rachelle Smit, wife of Petrus, who is from Sagay City, recently announced that they will give 200 cattle for free to the province for the improvisation and technology sharing for dairy production and development of Negros, Decena also said.

He added that the five participants are now preparing their immigration documents with a licensed immigration adviser and the managing director of the New Zealand Immigration Help Service, Maricel Weischede. *LTG

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