P2SDM of IPB teaches the Nambo Community to make Silage for Animal Feed
Many residents of Nambo Village, Klapanunggal Subdistrict, Bogor, have livestock as a hobby or as their main livelihood. The difficulty to find animal feed is a problem that is often encountered by farmers who do not have experience or education of livestock.
The Center for Human Resource Development (P2SDM), Institute for Research and Community Services (LPPM) of IPB University in collaboration with Holcim Indonesia, helped to improve the ability of the Nambo Village community in accordance with their livelihoods and hobbies. In this case, silage was made as sheep feed.
Holcim Indonesia through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), prepared the land that will be managed to cultivate fodder grass for the livestock of Nambo Village community.
In this activity, P2SDM featured trainers and experts on forage development. They were Khairul Ikhwan, alumnus of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, and Ir. M. Agus Setiana, MS, a forage development expert who already has experience in manufacturing animal feed technology.
To the people of Nambo Village who own livestock, Khairul Ikhwan explained how to make silage for animal feed that can be stored in the long term and will be very useful during the seasons when the feed is difficult to find. In making silage, farmers must prepare several ingredients such as sugar cane or molasses, fine bran, elephant grass, plastic bags or barrels, and Em4 bacterial starter.
“It is very easy to make silage. First, the elephant grass is cut with a size of 5-10 centimeters using a chopper machine. The feed ingredients are then mixed to be a mixture. Animal feed ingredients are put in silo of plastic bag and exceed the silo surface to maintain the possibility of shrinkage of the contents of the silo. At the same time, the ingredients are compacted so that there are no air cavities. The silo is then tightly covered using plastic and tied with rubber tires so that there is no air in,” he said.
According to him, the community was very interested in testing this silage feed on their sheep. In addition, the community also tried to make silage with another ingredient such as field grass. The IPB team consisted of Khairul Ikhwan, M Fikri Biran and Nesa Mas was appointed by P2SDM to train and develop the silage-making training process. (Dh/Zul/ZSP)
