In January 2017, SPR Mega Jaya, a governmentinitiated farmer cooperative in Kasiman, partnered with the IACCB Programme to breed Brahman Cross cattle from Australia.

Aside from providing cattle to the community, the IACCB Programme is delivering a range of technical assistance to the local farmers. This assistance includes guidance on animal handling, pasture development and cattle breeding, as well as training in the use of equipment such as loading and unloading ramps, walkways, laneways and cattle crushes.

For the farmers, the training courses and technical advice have had an immediate impact on their daily activities. They are now better able to herd and transfer cattle and clean the holding pens. For Pak Masto, a member of skills committee of SPR Mega Jaya, the efforts of the IACCB Programme have increased his enthusiasm and motivation to care for the cattle.

When the Brahman Cross cattle first arrived in Kasiman, Pak Masto was stunned by their size and it was four days before he felt comfortable interacting with the animals.

“The cattle were huge,” he now says with a laugh. “At first, I didn’t have the courage to go near them.” With three bulls and 100 heifers in their new IACCB herd, feeding regimes are a significant challenge for the farmers of SPR Mega Jaya. The Australian cattle require more feed than the traditional Balinese cattle, with each beast consuming an average of around 40 kilograms of forage per day.

Using the traditional ‘cut and carry’ method, farmers would need to travel several kilometres to meet the daily feed requirements of over four tonnes of forage, a burdensome process made even more difficult when monsoonal rains make the local dirt roads almost impossible to travel on.

“These farmers are willing to collect lots of grass for the cattle,” says Pak Darwanto, head of SPR Mega Jaya. “However, terrible road conditions and long distances make it more challenging, so we cannot maximize the outcomes.

“We are using the support of IACCB to modify our feeding techniques. We have now started planting forage grass around the pen and hopefully we can harvest in the next three months. Now, any vacant land near the pen will be used to plant grass. This will be easier on the farmers and better for the cattle.” With the farmers growing greater levels of forage near the cattle yards, and working to improve the condition of access roads around Kasiman, the productivity and welfare of the cattle is beginning to improve, with cows better able to retain weight during pregnancy.