Yellow Corn – We Were Looking At It All These 62 Years And Did Not See!

That yellow corn was too good to be true I myself did not see as an A student at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture in 1959!

(upper image from Facebook[1] Isabela Dry Monitoring Yellow Corn, lower image[2] from Britannica)

1^st Year, in an animal husbandry class (I forget the exact title), we learned that yellow corn was a major ingredient of poultry feed; a great many years later, yellow corn became expensive,

60+ years later, why have UP Los Baños animal husbandry professors not done research on a feed substitute for yellow corn?

2 reasons I can think of right now are:

(1)   The professors did not do much animal research.

(2)   The professors did not think in terms of feed substitutes.

Not surprisingly, birds and pigs and humans love yellow corn because of its bright color and sweet taste. Of yellow corn[3], ANN says (Author Not Named, undated, Specialty Produce):

The less sweet corn is cooked, the better the flavor and texture. Yellow corn can be roasted, grilled, blanched, steamed, or pureed. Its bright and sweet flavors lend well to pastas and salads. It pairs well with tomatoes, basil cilantro, lobster, pork, (chilis), truffles, shelling beans, cream, nutty cheeses, peas, summer squashes, fennel, citrus and scallops. Yellow corn is dried and ground into flour for baked goods, tortillas, cereals and used as a crust/crisping agent for dishes both savory and sweet. Corn is also used for oil, as a sweetener in foods and beverages and as a base for beverage alcohol.

Countless uses as is or ground into flour – How economically important is yellow corn!

Yellow corn is the farm crop that UP Los Baños ignored!

I now consider it a failure of my alma mater, UP Los Baños, in research for development (R4D): The search for an alternative for yellow corn as feed for poultry & livestock – aside from humans.

Here comes the Department of Agriculture (DA) doing something concrete about costs of yellow corn: “DA Reviews Tariff Cut For Yellow Corn[4]” (Catherine Talavera, 01 August 2021, The Philippine Star):

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has created a technical working group (TWG) to study possible reforms in the tariffs of imported yellow corn in a bid to provide a lower and steady supply of the commodity to farmers who use it for animal feeds.

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar creating a TWG means the DA sees imported yellow corn is vital to the health of PH Agriculture: Cost must go down and supply must be stable. We feed on the animals that feed on the corn.

Yellow corn has strategic importance in the livestock, poultry and fishery sectors since it is the major animal feed ingredient. It is estimated that feeds constitute approximately 60 to 70 percent of the total operating production costs.

I go back to my dear old alma mater: “Why has UP Los Baños failed in those 100-years-plus to do research for development in yellow corn?!”@517

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[1]https://www.facebook.com/Isabela-dry-yellow-corn-monitoring-farmers-choice-2204164049828109/

[2]https://www.britannica.com/plant/corn-plant

[3]https://www.freshproduce.com.ph/veggies/166-patola.html#:~:text=Yellow%20corn%20can%20be%20roasted,%2C%20fennel%2C%20citrus%20and%20scallops.

[4]https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/08/01/2116643/da-reviews-tariff-cut-yellow-corn