Special Wafer for Sheep
The contribution of sheep production to meat consumption, including in the city of Jakarta, is nationally still very small. According to Livestock Statistics, the total population of sheep in Indonesia was only about 8.6 million, while that of Jakarta was about 1 500 birds in 2006. If the potential of the sheep is managed well and professionally especially in terms of feed, the livestock sector will contribute to an improved welfare of animal farmers, especially sheep breeders in Jakarta.
The many traditional markets in Jakarta enable vegetable waste to be available continuously. As raw material for feed, the vegetable waste has several advantages such as having economic value, producing a variety of useful products, cheap price is, easily obtained, and not competing with human needs. It can also reduce the problem of environmental pollution caused by the waste.
Dr. Ir. Yuli Retnani, M.Sc., a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Nutrition Sciences and Feed Technology, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Bogor Agricultural University (FAPET-IPB), expressed such view as a result of her research.
However, according to Dr. Yuli, the vegetable waste also has weaknesses, such as easily perishable, voluminous (bulky) and fluctuative supply, so it needs a feed processing technology to make it last longer, easily stored and easily fed to livestock.
Vegetable supply in the Parent Market of Kramat Jati Jakarta for example is of 19 types of vegetables, highly potential to become vegetable waste. Vegetables include round cabbages, cauliflower, young jackfruit, onion, garlic, chili, mustard greens, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onion leaves, celery leaves, coconut, stringed beans, corn, bean sprouts, and ginger.
The abundant potential vegetable waste, if not utilized, will only emit bad smell and increase the volume of final waste disposal area (TPA). Dr. Yuli uses the vegetable waste for livestock feed t in the form of wafers.
The wafer resulting from her research uses using cornhusk, waste of mung bean sprouts, and leaves of cauliflower. Based on the research results, the nutrition content of the three vegetable wastes is quite high compared to other vegetable wastes.
The wafer is produced by an easy and cheap processing technology. All vegetable waste is chopped into small pieces first, then dried and milled. Finally, it is pressed by a machine so that it becomes a compact shape and ready to be fed to livestock.
Dr. Yuli created three formulas of wafers. Wafer A is made from field grass and concentrates, Wafer B is composed of 50 % grass field and market vegetable waste, added with concentrates. Wafer C is made from 100 % market waste vegetable added with the concentrate.
Dr Yuli did a palatability test to obtain the best wafer of vegetable waste. The content of crude protein in the feed based on the analysis at the Laboratory of Animal Feed Science and Technology, Fapet IPB is as follows: wafer A (10.47 %), wafer B (15.03 %), and wafer C (15.58 %). Protein is essential to promote the weight of sheep or meat. These wafers have been tested on sheep in Peternakan Mitra Tani Farm (MT Farm) Ciampea, Bogor Regency.
It is found that the consumption of wafer B is higher than that of other treatments because the nutrient content (crude protein) of wafer B is closer to the protein need of growing sheep. According to the National Research Council (NRC – 1985), the protein requirement of growing sheep is 14%.
Further, Dr. Yuli said that the best nutritional quality of vegetable waste from the parent market resulted from cauliflower leaves and mung bean sprouts. The best physical quality of wafers was found in the wafer of 100 % cornhusk waste. Meanwhile, the best nutritional quality of vegetable waste wafer was found to contain 25 % cornhusk, 50 % of mung bean sprouts and 25 % cauliflower leaves.
"Palatability of wafers containing 25 % cornhusk waste, 50 % mung bean sprouts and 25 % cauliflower leaves is greater or preferred by sheep compared to that of other treatments," said Dr. Yuli.
The body weight increase of sheep fed on the wafer of grass field and the wafer of vegetable waste was not significantly different. However, the highest increase of body weight was found in sheep fed on wafer consisting of 50 % market vegetable waste and 50 % grass field.
However, this technology can not as yet be adopted immediately because these wafers are still limited to the research scale, not yet developed into the industry scale. "It needs support for mass production," said Dr. Yuli. (mtd)
