THE DYNAMICS OF BEEF CATTLE FATTENING IN WEST TIMOR

Abstract

The improvement made in a village used to practice fattening steers for
commercial cattle through the introduction of technologies including; (i) The
introduction of communal (group) raising system, keeping animals in a communal
housing with individual stalls. Each group may consist of 20-30 animals, which was
own by a group of fir-mers. Any farmer member may care for 1-3 animals in each
period; (ii) The improvement of feed and fwding standard by introducing 60% grasses to 40% legumes ration; (m) The provision of sites to collect the cattle dung for organic fertilizer (manure); and (iv) Utilizing the manure for vegetable backyard farming and other crops. The results of the research carried out during 1999/2000-2001 were: (i) Nine lots of fattening period were carried for 4-6 months in each period, involved 6-11 groups of farmers keeping 104-256 steers in each period; (ii) The total numbers of cattle involved during the nine periods of fattening were 1,277 heads owned by 156 farmers, worth of Rp. 2,035,614,082; (m) The average growth rate of the fattening cattle in the research was higher than the growth rate of cattle raised traditionally by the local farmers (0.7 kg/head/day vs. 0.3 kg/head/day); (iv) The amount of manure produced was 500-600 kg/head/period, contributing significant value for backyard farming of other crops; (v) The development of this program was expected to enhance the income and welfare of the farmers; (vi) The sustainability of this fattening program in the long term will guarantee an integrated farming system at village level; and (vii) The impact of the activities has spread over to other nearby villages, even to other districts in East Nusa Tenggara.