Under a canopy of palm trees, a herd of cows gathers in one spot. Two men are pushing a cart containing a few sacks of cow feed. The men pour the feed into a large blue container, and the herd—most of them mature cows—wanders instinctively toward the container. Among the larger beasts, three small calves can be seen following their mothers closely.
The calves are a result of the breeding program run by PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The company has been a partner of the Indonesia Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding (IACCB) Program since 2016, and is now successfully managing the integration of palm oil production and cattle breeding.
Yully Pudjianto, the Cattle Operations Manager for PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari, explains that the company has been trying to integrate cattle breeding with their palm plantation business since 2011.
“The initial results were not satisfactory,” Yully says. “The biggest challenge was to convince plantation people that the cows can coexist with the palm trees.
“People always assume that cows are the enemies of palm trees and that they will disturb the management of the plantation.”
To overcome these perceptions, PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari approached the IACCB team for technical support and the potential provision of cattle from Australia.
In 2016, the IACCB team sent 250 heifers and 22 bulls to the plantation in Central Kalimantan. More importantly, these cattle were accompanied by a team of experts in breeding management.
“Our staff were trained to understand everything about the integration of cows into palm plantations,” Yully says.
With the technical skills provided by the IACCB team, the cattle breeding staff and the managers of the plantation learned to collaborate with each other to sync the requirements of the two production systems.
For instance, PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari now uses palm kernel cake and palm oil by-products to feed the cattle, while the cattle in turn supply organic fertilizer for the palm trees.
“Back in 2011, we worked with the cattle and the others worked in the plantation, so we had different interests,” Yully explains. “We soon found out that good coordination is essential and we now integrate our schedules.”
At the centre of this coordinated approach is a carefully administered data management system.
The IACCB team provides training for staff to record data on feed levels, productivity, pregnancy, births, weanings and mortalities, as well as the cost of production.
Stania Yasin, Result Measurement Manager for the IACCB Program, says that formal training is held twice a year, but support missions by the IACCB team to Central Kalimantan are frequent.
“Our capacity building activities include technical guidance on data recording,” Stania says. “This is very important to understand the progress and performance of the breeding program.
“From there, we can make continuous improvements through the data that has been collected and analysed.”
The compilation of reliable data allows the company not only to analyse the productivity of the livestock—calving rates, calving intervals, daily weight gain of calves, etc—but also to assess the economic value of integration on palm oil production, particularly in areas such as reduced weeding and fertiliser costs as well as fruit yields.
PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari now has a herd of 510 cows in its palm plantation, and is pursuing new ways to benefit further from its integrated production model.
“The cattle and palm integration is a system that we will continue to apply in the company,” Yully confirms. “I believe cattle breeding can be a very profitable business for the plantation.”
With the assistance of the IACCB team, Yully and his staff have started to plant vacant areas of the plantation with legumes, which will both increase the nutritional value of the fodder provided to the cattle and add nitrogen to the soil to promote growth in the palm trees.
Fahruddin, the managing director of PT Kalteng Andinipalma Lestari, is impressed with the recent results achieved by Yully and other managers.
He points to the fact that his company is now working with the IACCB Program and the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to clearly define the benefits of integrating cattle breeding into palm plantations.
“The benefit we have experienced from our partnership with the IACCB for the past two years encourages us to do more” Fahruddin says. He now aims to continue improving the cattle and palm integration system.
“We are now conducting research to better understand what production levels can be reached under the integration model.”
For more information on the IACCB Program, visit iaccbp.org