Fermented feed has become one of the popular alternatives for providing additional nutrition to pigs. One type of fermented feed that can be made in Matei and Eimadake villages is fermented feed using raw materials such as banana stems, Moringa leaves, papaya leaves, corn and coconut. The making of fermented feed is motivated by the desire to reduce dependence on manufactured feed and the desire to provide nutritious natural feed.
The feed production, which was carried out on 9, 16 and 23 March, was initiated by the field school participants and assistants, 13 people consisting of 6 men and 7 women as well as field school assistants who collaborated with livestock officers from the agriculture and food office of Sabu Raijua district, Mr Yulianus Kale. This fermented pig feed initiative arises to answer several things, first is to reduce dependence on feed which has been purchased at a fairly expensive price where 1 sack of concentrate ranges from Rp. 475,000 to Rp. 580,000, this price fluctuation is also influenced by transportation conditions and the availability of incoming freight ships. In addition, the utilisation of local resources that can be used as animal feed.
There is a desire of field school participants, after several problems in livestock maintenance ranging from anticipation of ASF (African Swine Fever) with the application of biosecurity, good and inexpensive cage standards, handling pests and diseases that participants continue to learn, besides that the main problem in livestock maintenance is the availability of nutritious feed, this is realised by participants when in the learning process periodic weighing is carried out, and several experiments in feed type interventions determine different growth.
The fermented feed made together with participants and assistants, first identified the types of local material sources available, as well as the condition of livestock both in the growth phase and the breeding phase, where there are some ingredients that need to be avoided when pigs are in the breeding phase. OMB Bersatu Matei Village, where pig livestock commodities begin in the fattening phase, the local ingredients collected are banana stems, moringa leaves, papaya leaves, corn, and coconuts that are widely available around the house. These local materials are then formulated with additional concentrates and minerals 10, additional EM-4 Animal Husbandry and Gula sabu (palm sugar) to meet the nutritional content and fermentation process of the ingredients.
In the discussion after making fermented feed, participants tried to calculate the cost efficiency of fermented feed and manufactured mixed feed that was previously used, in making manufactured mixed feed where the dominance of manufactured ingredients in the form of higher concentrates spent Rp. 646,000 for 100 Kg of feed, while with fermented feed with the same weight spent Rp. 258,600, there was a budget efficiency of Rp. 387,400.
Met during the process of making fermented feed with the community, Syarif Hidayat, area manager of Sabu Raijua, said "The livestock field school conducted in Matei and Eimadake villages revealed many interesting things that were successfully carried out through the cooperation of participants and related stakeholders. In addition, the future challenges that need to be answered together by OMB are the low public awareness of good livestock management and waste utilisation, as well as encouraging local governments to provide animal protein sources as raw materials for animal feed, or the finished animal feed itself," he said.