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Cut-and-carry feeding of indigenous grasses in indonesian smallholder sheep production: effect of amount offered on intake and growth, and on output of compost made from refusals and excreta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

J C Tanner ,
E Owen ,
M Winugroho  and
M Gill
J C Tanner
Affiliation:
NRI/ODA Project, Research Institute for Animal Production, Balai Penelitian Ternak (BPT), Box 123, Ciawi-Bogor, Indonesia.
E Owen
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 236, Reading, Berks RG6 2AT
M Winugroho
Affiliation:
NRI/ODA Project, Research Institute for Animal Production, Balai Penelitian Ternak (BPT), Box 123, Ciawi-Bogor, Indonesia.
M Gill
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Institute, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Chatham, Kent ME4 4TB
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Extract

Sheep in West Java, Indonesia, are raised by smallholders using labour-intensive, cut-and-carry feeding of indigenous grasses. Flock sizes are small, ca. 5 sheep per household and animals are permanently housed in thatched sheds. The sheds are elevated on stilts and are fitted with slatted floors beneath which the excreta and feed refusals (ca. 400 g/kg offered) are composted. Compost is an important fertiliser for smallholders' crops.

Cutting and carrying grass is labour demanding (eg 2.1 h/sheep.day [Thahar & Petheram, 1983]; 1.4 h/sheep.day [Hill, 1973]); allowing sheep to refuse ca. 400 g/kg of grass offered would therefore appear wasteful. However research on feeding barley straw (Wahed, Owen, Naate & Hosking, 1990) has shown intake to increase when sheep and goats are allowed to refuse 500 g/kg offered instead of the more conventional 200 g/kg refusal-rate.

Type
Small Ruminant Production
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1993: Winter meeting , March 1993 , pp. 120
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1993

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References

Hill, T M 1973. A study of ruminant animal production potential to alleviate deficiencies of human diets in Java and Madura. PhD Thesis, University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Thahar, A & Petheram, R J 1983. Systems of ruminant rearing during the dry season in West Java. In Proceedings of the 5th World Conference of Animal Production. 2: 851–852 Google Scholar
Wahed, R A, Owen E, Naate, M & Hosking, B J 1990. Feeding straw to small ruminants: effect of amount offered on intake and selection of barley straw by sheep and goats. Animal Production 51: 283–289.Google Scholar