Context
Increasing demand for livestock products in developing countries provides opportunities for smallholder farmers to increase and diversify their income through increased livestock production. However, livestock production in these systems is often limited by inadequate animal nutrition, and farmers need ways to increase the availability and quality of livestock feed without compromising yields of food crops or increasing the area of land planted to forages.
Aim
Using eastern Indonesia as a case study, we explore the potential for herbaceous legumes, integrated into existing mixed crop–livestock systems, to address specific production issues in smallholder beef systems.
Methods
Through a series of in-village feeding demonstrations, we tested three opportunities to increase livestock production through the use of herbaceous legumes: (i) increasing reproduction rates of cows by maintaining their liveweight (LW) and body condition score during the dry season; (ii) increasing the survival and LW gain of unweaned calves; and (iii) increasing LW gain of growing bulls.
Key results
Small amounts of legume (~10 g DM/kg LW) were enough to maintain LW of cows grazing poor-quality grasses and crop residues during the dry season. At higher levels of inclusion in the diet (~20 g DM/kg LW), feeding legumes increased the LW gain of growing cattle and survival of unweaned calves, providing benefits similar to a purchased concentrate, but at lower cost.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate how strategic use of herbaceous legumes can increase beef production from low-input systems by maintaining LW of cows, and increasing survival of unweaned calves and LW gain of growing bulls.
Implications
Integration of herbaceous legumes into existing cropping systems removes many of the barriers to supplementary feeding. Improved livestock nutrition does not need to be based on purchased concentrates or increases in land used for forage production. The results are applicable to many other mixed crop–livestock systems throughout Southeast Asia.
This paper’s working hypothesis is that the indigenous farming practices of Timorese farmers are those most suitable and adaptable with regard to these farmers’ circumstances. Intensive farming and the acceleration of land conversion in Java lead to a reduction in favorable cropland and the degradation of soil biology. To meet the demand for food production, unfavorable areas outside Java, including marginal semi-arid areas on Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, have become an important option. Unfortunately, the national crop production policy has paid less attention to the specific biophysical characteristics of the region and how local people have adapted to the diverse marginal environment. We review the literature in the areas of soil nutrition retention and soil biology, vegetation/crop diversity, and farming practices/management, including local wisdom on soil management. This paper highlights that the values of the chemical parameters of the soils in question are varied, but generally range from low to high. The existence of beneficial micro-organisms is important both for improving soil fertility and due to their association with local vegetation/crops. Traditional farming practices, such as the local agroforestry of Mamar, have effectively preserved the existence of micro-organisms that promote conservation practices, crop/vegetation diversity, and sustainable agriculture. We recommend that the expansion of croplands and crop production into marginal semi-arid areas needs to be considered and adapted while taking into consideration sustainability and environmentally sound traditional practices.
An experiment was conducted to measure forage production of Leucaena leucocephala cv Tarramba planted in a multiple rows of live fencing model. Plants were arranged in 8 rows which planted 2 meters from the main live fence of 1ha land. The plants were cut at of 1m height and then again at +30cm from the ground level. Measurement of forage production was conducted to observe its ability in providing forage. Areas of 8x20 m on each of the 4 land sides (replications) were allocated for the measurements. Half of the observation plot (8x10m) was allocated for 2 months cutting interval and the other half (8x10m) were allocated for 4 months cutting interval. Measurements conducted were on fresh and dry matter of edible parts (leaf and stem skin), plant height, stem diameter and number of branches. The results showed that each plant produced in average of 8 to 11 branches at 2 months interval, while the 4 months interval produced 2 to 4 branches only. Plant heights and diameters were 150-280 cm and 0.6-2.5 cm on the 2 months cutting interval, and from 465-560 cm and 2.6-3.4 cm on the 4 months cutting interval. At 2 months interval, two harvests produced a total edible DM of 4 ton. While the 4 months interval obtained 1 harvest with 3.6 tons DM per harvest, able to support about 4-5 heads of Bali cattle for fattening during the 4 months. Thus, during the wet season the 2 months cutting interval is recommended.
Keynote paper presented at the International Leucaena Conference, 1‒3 November 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.Research and government agencies in eastern Indonesia have identified 2 systems with potential to increase productivity and incomes of small-holder cattle producers: improved cattle feeding practices through forage tree legumes (FTL); and the development of more efficient and specialized cattle-fattening systems. Extensive research has been conducted on production and technical aspects of FTL-fattening systems, but there is a gap in research on economic incentives for households to adopt the systems. This paper provides an economic analysis of a leucaena-fattening system in a village in West Timor. It draws on trial data from associated technical research projects and detailed semi-structured interviews with farmers and other stakeholders to populate a bio-economic model built for the research. Under all measures of profitability, leucaena-fattening systems in representative households are profitable in the wet season. Importantly, ’returns to person days’ are higher than off-farm incomes. The activity generates cash income, increasingly required to meet cash expenses in modern rural Indonesian society. However, returns vary considerably between households, are considerably lower in the dry season and, as would be expected, are sensitive to relative prices of feeder and finished cattle.
Keynote paper presented at the International Leucaena Conference, 1‒3 November 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) cv. Tarramba was first introduced to eastern Indonesia (East and West Nusa Tenggara Provinces) as part of an ACIAR project in 2001‒2003. Its superior value was recognized immediately as it: was preferred by cattle over local leucaena; was less affected by psyllids; provided better dry season growth; and produced poles suitable for construction. In on-farm Bali bull feeding demonstrations, Tarramba leucaena doubled weight gains compared with traditional practices, enabling the most progressive farmers to win local bull-fattening competitions. Owing to strong demand for seed, the East Nusa Tenggara Assessment Institute for Agriculture Technology, in collaboration with the Provincial Livestock Department, assisted smallholders to establish seed orchards to ensure that professionally produced and packaged Tarramba seed was available for commercial sale. By the end of the ACIAR involvement, approximately 2,000 kg of Tarramba seed had been distributed to farmers, in addition to farmer-to-farmer seed sales. Approximately 800,000 ha of land in East Nusa Tenggara Province is suitable for Tarramba leucaena so the potential for this legume to contribute to beef production in the region is huge. Tarramba is now contributing to forage development in other parts of Indonesia as well as in Timor-Leste.
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