Valentino G. Arganosa and Beef Cattle Heat Tolerance in the Philippines

Who was Valentino G. Arganosa?

Valentino G. Arganosa is listed in the Philippine Department of Science and Technology's SPHERES database of scientists, in a profile filed under his name. The profile gives his field as animal husbandry and ties him to the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) in Laguna province. No birth or death dates appear in the pages reviewed for this entry, so none are given here.

A caution applies. The profile page as retrieved carried the file name and a record of education, awards and publications, but the page text did not print a name heading. The details below come from that profile and from the titles of the beef cattle papers it lists, and they are presented as the record filed under his name. This entry is marked thin because the available evidence is limited.

Education and scholarships

The profile lists a B.S. in Agriculture from UPLB in 1956, an M.S. in Animal Science from the University of Hawaii in 1962, and a Ph.D. in Animal Breeding from Oklahoma State University in 1968. It also lists an Albino Z. Sycip scholarship for 1955 to 1956, a Most Outstanding Graduate recognition from the University of the Philippines in 1956, and a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship covering 1965 to 1968.

That sequence, a Philippine degree, a Hawaiian master's and an Oklahoma doctorate in animal breeding, shows training across three institutions in two countries before the late 1960s.

The heat tolerance papers

The core of the beef cattle record is a four-part series in the Philippine Agriculturist titled Body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate and heat tolerance index of beef cattle. Part one, from 1964, covers Santa Gertrudis, Nellore and their crosses. Part two, from 1965, covers Santa Gertrudis cattle in Calatagan, Batangas. Part three, from 1965, covers American Brahman and Indo-Brazil cows. Part four, from 1967, covers Charolais bulls, cows and calves and Charolais-Tharparkar F1 crosses, also in Calatagan.

As the publication list shows, the measures in the titles, body temperature, pulse and respiration rate, are the standard readings used to judge how hard an animal is working to stay cool. A heat tolerance index combines such readings into a score so breeds can be compared in the same climate.

• The series spans about 1964 to 1967 in the profile's publication list.
• Calatagan, in Batangas province, was the field location for two of the four parts.
• The breeds covered mixed European, zebu and composite types.

Other research listed

The same profile lists work well beyond beef cattle. It includes articles on goat dairying, swine breeding and castration, piglet mortality, carcass quality, and the quality of horse and carabao meat, with publications ranging roughly from 1958 to 1971 in outlets such as the Philippine Agriculturist, Better Poultry and Livestock, Agriculture at Los Banos and the Journal of Animal Science.

The range shows a university researcher working across species and practical questions, from sausage made with local meats to the comfort of imported cattle.

Why Santa Gertrudis was part of the story

The Santa Gertrudis was developed on the King Ranch in Texas, where the name comes from the Spanish estate Los Cerros de Santa Gertrudis, established as a ranch in 1851, according to the Santa Gertrudis cattle article. The breed is a hybrid of zebu and European cattle, aimed at roughly 37 percent zebuine and 62 percent taurine ancestry, and was officially recognized by the USDA in 1940.

The same source notes the breed has good tolerance of heat and good resistance to ticks and bloat, and that it has been exported to about forty countries. That reputation is why a breeding researcher in the tropics would test it against Brahman and Nellore types.

Learn more

The DOST SPHERES profile is the best starting point for the publication list. For ranching stories from other tropical regions, browse the ranching section of farm.FM and a farm.FM story about Santa Gertrudis cattle.