Care for Livestock Feed, IPB University Students Plant 2000 Feed Plants and Feed Preservation Training
As many as 20 IPB University students from Faculty of Animal Husbandry who are also the recipients of Japfa Foundation or called as Japfa Foundation Scholarship Club (JFSC) held a community service program for the community in the Neglasari Village, Dramaga District, Bogor, precisely in Neglasari Farmers Association, Saturday (7/12). Dr Moch Sriduresta S, SPt, MSc, lecturer at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry IPB University, said that the community service is a method to get closer so the students can learn directly in the field with farmers from the upstream to downstream. The place of service is chosen in Neglasari Village because it was supported by sheep commodities so we could utilize the by-products such as wool.
The community service done was the planting of 1600 Indigofera seeds and 400 odot plants as the source of livestock feeds. Indigofera plant used because the plant is a leguminosa livestock forage originating from Papua and provides high nutrition for livestocks. Other advantages from Indigofera plant is that it has high productivity, easy to plant, and can survive well in dry or wet conditions.
Meanwhile the odot plant is one of the Elephant Grass variety (Pennisetum purpureum) which has superiority on high productivity, especially in rainy season the stem of the grass will be tender, making the fondness of goats or sheeps increases. In addition, the high nutritional content such as crude protein from odot grass is 12-14% some even reach 17%, and the digestibility level is high around 65-67%.
Beside the planting action, the students also invited the farmers to practice making silage feed together. Through the training of feed preservation for farmers, it is expected that farmers can store feed reserves for the dry season. This fermented silage product has advantages such as the cellulose from the forage will break and making the nutrition easier to be absorbed when consumed by livestocks.
Another activity carried out by the students is about Haylage. Haylage activity is a preservation process of feed plant from agricultural waste that has been dried with water content less than 60% then fermented to increase the palatability (fondness) of livestocks.
Wahono Kolopaking from Japfa Foundation in his remarks said that the students other than receiving educational funding, also provided with facilities to learn and transfer knowledge in social projects, so the students’ skills could be formed.
This community service is warmly welcomed by the Head of Neglasari Village, Yayan Mulyana. He hoped that the collaboration between IPB University and Neglasari Village could continue to be well established. “I also hope that this program can help Neglasari Village to become an agrotourism destination,” he said. (IAAS/ELS)
Keyword: JFSC, Silage and Haylage Technology, IPB Students, odot
