Body Weight Gain Response of Sumba Ongole Cattle to the Improvement of Feed Quality in East Sumba District, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Abstract

The main hindrance of cattle feeding in East Nusa Tenggara is the low quality of feed during the long dry season (8-9 months/year) which brought about a low yearly average DWG to the animals. An initial experiment to compare cattle on native grasses and cattle on mainly Leucaena leucocephala leaf was conducted in East Sumba District to demonstrate the importance of improving the quality of feed to the farmers, who for long time have been much relied on native grasses as feed sources. Sumba Ongole Cattle (5-9 heads) with average body weight of 200 kg at two villages i.e. Padadita and Wanga. Five to nine cattle were fed on regular feed of mainly native grasses at Padadita and mainly L. Leucocephala leaf at Wanga. The experiment was conducted during the dry period in 2014 (June to October). Feed was given ad-libitum during the experiment. The results showed signi cantly higher body weight gain in cattle received leucaena leaf compared with cattle that received native grasses, which lost weight during the experiment. The experiment therefore concluded that it is important to improve the quality of feed in cattle feeding in East Sumba, which could be done trough the development and use of L. leucocephala to establish high quality feed resources in the island, where now it can be considered rare.