Alumni of UGM gave training to process dry hays into fermented hays and complete feed to the farmer groups of Wira Sejati dan Wira Dadi in Wirasaba village, Purbalingga city in Central Java, on Thursday, 25 May 2017.
Luthfi Zain, S.Pt, alumnus of Faculty of Animal Sciences UGM, said the programme was part of mentoring by students and alumni of UGM related to a special programme from Ministry of Agriculture to support meat self-sufficiency in 2017. Morevoer, during the dry season, most farmers find it difficult to get green feeds. So, they use dry feed instead to meet the needs of the cattle.
Obviously, the dry hays would not provide sufficient nutrients if given for an extended period of time. This will lead to the reproductive status of the cattle.
"The rough protein content of dry hays is very low between 3 - 4 percent while the need of the cows is around 12 - 14 percent," said Luthfi Zain, S.Pt, at the Faculty of Monday (29/5).
Luthfi said a technology innovation was needed to support the provision of qualiy feed. One of these is by processing dry hays into fermented hays and complete feed.
"We are giving this training to support the government programme so that female cows would not lack of nutrition that may disrupt their reproductive system,” he said.
Lutfi Zain explained that Purbalingga regency was a centre of slaughter cows in Central Java. Purbalingga targets to produce as many as 3600 female cows.
"The training is very important to give to the people of Wirasaba village because this is a centre of agriculture that produces hays in a great amount. Unsurprisingly, many local residents were enthusiastic with the programme,” said Luthfi.
Dr. Endy Triyananto, S.Pt., M.Eng, supervising lecturer, said the dry hays processing into fermented hays and complete feed was done with the addition of brans. This is one way to increase the quality of the feed so that the protein content in the feed can increae from 3-4 percent to 7-8 percent.
"Effort to increase the quality of feed is important to do to support agricultural efforts in Indonesia towards a self-sufficiency,” he said.