Calf production of Bali cows in cattle-oil palm plantation integration system in Riau Province Indonesia

Abstract

The development of cattle in the area of oil palm plantations has the potential to become an agribusiness, but it still needs to be studied in-depth because the cattle business requires a long period with a significant investment. One study that needs to do is the calf production per year because it is directly related to input-output calculations. This study aims to find out the calf production of Bali cows which maintained integrated with oil palm plantations in Riau province, as one of the provinces that has the largest oil palm plantation area in Indonesia. Twenty-three Bali cows grazed with males in a colony were used as research samples. Livestock is kept semi-intensive by grazing in the plantation area from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. then housed without additional feeding. The study conducted from 2016 to 2018; the data recorded for calculating the calf crop is the calving interval, birth rate, and calf mortality. During three years of observation, the calving interval, calving percentage, and calf mortality were 370-421 days, 86-100%, and 10-34% respectively. The calculation obtained that the calf production was 64-72%/year. It concluded that the development of Bali cattle with an integrated system with oil palm plantations has the potential to be an agribusiness opportunity in terms of the calf crop to be obtained.