PALMOILMAGAZINE, YOGYAKARTA – In 2016, palm oil plantations in Indonesia covered approximately 11.2 million hectares. This area expanded to 14.66 million hectares by 2021, and further increased to 14.99 million hectares in 2022, with palm oil production reaching 45.58 million tons, or roughly 3.04 tons per hectare.
According to Professor Bambang Suhartanto from the Faculty of Livestock at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), these extensive plantations could potentially support livestock farming by providing a suitable environment for animals. This could include the cultivation of various types of forage such as grasses, forbs, legumes, ferns, and more.
“Palm oil–cow integrated program is one integrated agricultural system which is, the cows would get food from the green among trees and side products of palm oil plantation companies,” Prof. Bambang said when delivering speech in his inauguration as Professor in Animal Food and Nutrition, Tuesday (19/9) in Balai Senat Gedung Pusat UGM.
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Prof. Bambang also told, palm oil – cow integrated program is the ideal integrated agricultural system if there are some areas provided to feed animals if the trees (palm oil plantations) are more than 5 years old.
Breeding cows within grazing rotation method in palm oil plantation would minimize woof cost and nursery “Four million cows can develop in cheap (cost),” he said in his speech entitled ‘Sistem Integrasi Tanaman Pakan dan Kelapa Sawit untuk Mendukung Produksi Ternak Ruminansia di Indonesia’, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from the official page of UGM, Wednesday (20/9/2023).
Besides the potential in palm oil plantations, he continued, the other side products for ruminant animals as the woofs, are midrib, leaves, the side products from mills, such as, palm oil mud, and palm oil meal.
“In the contrary, palm oil plantations would get cows’ feces as the source of hara to escalate the fertility in palm oil plantations and control the weeds,” he said. (T2)
