UGM Faculty of Animal Science collaborated with Indonesia-Australia Red Meat Cattle Partnership in organizing an online Cow Feed Management Training on March 15-25, 2021. This program aimed to educate employees of companies, cooperatives, and breeders from all over Indonesia regarding the beef cattle industry, especially for fattening and breeding.
The dean of the UGM Faculty of Animal Science, Prof. Dr. Ir Ali Agus, DAA., DEA., IPU., ASEAN Eng., considered this effort to increase cow productivity in Indonesia. "The training of cow feed management is very relevant for practitioners or responsible parties in the field of feed and fattening. The goal of this training is to find practical solutions to improve production and reproduction performance through improved feed management," Ali Agus said in a release on Sunday (28/3).
Furthermore, George Hughes, as Agriculture Counsellor from Australia Embassy in Jakarta, added that the goal of this training aimed to comprehend the participants through absolute training management values about animal feed and shirk for low feed ratio costs to improve productivity and profit. "Hopefully, instead of only learning from the presenters, we can share information and experience with each other," he said.
On the other hand, Prof. Dr. Ir. Zaenal Bachruddin, M.Sc., IPU., ASEAN. Eng., as training coordinator, expected that this event could be a medium to improve competency in supporting the productivity of their farms or company.
Adung Karyo, as one of the participants from Samarinda, East Kalimantan, revealed that his party got a lot to learn. He hoped later he could improve the productivity based on the material given. Adung added that through this training, he could get a lot of networking from the participants and improve collaboration for the present or future.
The material given consisted of the supply chain of feed raw materials, feed warehouse management, efficient feed formulation, important role of minerals and vitamins, forage of fodder, pastura management, and disease management related to feeding. The training was held online via the UGM e-LOK platform and synchronous learning system via zoom meetings. Participants are able to access the material right before the training starts (asynchronous). In hands-on learning, presenters use case studies to increase participants' activeness in discussions and relate it with materials that have been obtained in asynchronous learning. Participants also receive online practice consisting of materials to control the quality of feed raw materials and the manufacture of feed formulations with the Least Cost Ratio (LCR).
From the total of 108 registrants, there were only 25 consisting of 8 females, and 17 males had passed the selection to continue to the training. Ten of them were from Sumatera, three were from Kalimantan, and the rest of the 12 were from Java. This feed training management program invited 16 speakers. Nine of them were from the UGM Faculty of Animal Science, one speaker from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine UGM, three speakers from PT Pasir Tengah and PT ALTECH Indonesia, and one speaker Indonesia-Australian Cattle Commercial Breeding (IACCB).
Author: Gusti Grehenson