Graze Your Water Buffaloes with Appropriate Green fodders
The assumption that feeding ruminants (cattle, buffalo, goats, and sheep) by providing fresh common grasseswill be enough is not always true.The traditionally buffalo raising in Indonesia is that farmers never givethem concentrate or other food supplements. It was stated by Ir. SetianaAgus, MS, the expert on green fodders of Science and Technology Section of Plant and Pastures, Department of Nutrition and Feed Technology, Faculty of Animal Husbandry – IPB, as a resource person "IPB expert at Rural Press RRI, 93.75 FM" on Tuesday (25 / 3).
"To be good water buffaloes farmer,we should learn the biology of this animal. Farmers should pay attention to adequate nutrition and animal welfare," he said. In order to utilize the animal, feed and economical resources as efficiently as possible, one must know the nutrient requirements of the animals. Requirements for buffaloes are more or less the same as for cattle, therefore, nutrient requirement tables for dairy cattle may be used as a guidance, the farmer must observe the animals and change feeding system with the guidance of an extension officer if it seems. The main diet for the buffalo is roughage such as grass, legumes and straw. The roughage can be fed either fresh as pasture or in a cut-and-carry-system with the appropriate composition 1:2.
Ruminants are mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through bacterial actions.Cattle and water buffalo have similar methods in grazing their fodders. Because of this unique oral anatomy, a cow uses its tongue to grasp a clump of grass and then bite it off. The grass is covered with their tongue and pulled up regardless of its parts. Whereas for sheep and horses, grasses are clipped to their lips and are cut by their teeth.Therefore buffalo and cattle prefer to have longer grass, while the sheep prefer shorter ones. They will eat grass, but they prefer to eat woody plants, shrubs, trees, and leaves. In addition, goats and sheep will eat plants that many other livestock refuse and they climb to reach their fodders.
Buffaloes (Bubalusbubalis) isthe most tolerant ruminantsto various species of fodder crops. Foddersof poor quality and high in cellulose, which other ruminants refuse, are acceptable for them. They eat reeds (quassab), a giant reed (birdi), a kind of bulrush (kaulan), water hyacinth and marsh grasses, and evenMimosa invisa. Green fodders includethe leaves, stems or trimmings of rice are used widely for intensive milk production and for fattening. In addition to ruminants, poultry such as geese, and other livestock such as horses and rabbits are classified into such depends on grazing,.
Furthermore, AgusSetianawho is noted as the motivator of this under, that the most importance thing in farming cattle is affection. "Livestock are the creatures of God. Do not just exploited them for profit only, but we must take care of them and love them, they will become channel of God’ blesses for us," he stated.
The present dialogue was performed differently from other previous ones. Generally, the invited resource person come alone or accompanied by his/her family members. This time, the resource person was accompanied by the photographer of Pariwara IPB, Mr.Cecep Abdul Wahab. When he was enquiried the reason for his presence in the Pro Studio 1 of RRI Bogor. He explained, in addition to cover the dialogue, he also interested in learning the philosophy of singing birds fromMr.AgusSetiana, the ornithologist. I love bird very much, and oneofmy hobbies is keeping birds. I learn to train singing birds to sing beautifully. I’m now preparing"My belovedCiu"to join the Muray Bird Contest next month" he said. After completing his job to cover the dialogue and learning how to train bird, Cecepseems so happy as he has learned the best methods as how to train singing bird. Okay sir, good luck! Love you "The belovedciu", your singing bird. (Wied).
