January 20, 2023

by admin

Palm Kernel Meal: An Alternative to Animal Feed Composition as Corn Prices Soar

Palm kernel meal. The development of the livestock industry in Indonesia is quite rapid. Animal husbandry has a significant position in supporting the availability of animal protein for Indonesian citizens. This coincides with the need for animal feed. In Indonesia, the need for animal feed is mostly derived from corn. Corn is chosen as the main composition of animal feed because it can be measured compared to other commodities and has a wide market.

Livestock Feed Prices Continue to Rise, Most of the Composition Comes from Corn

The soaring price of animal feed has had a huge impact on farmers. Many farmers have lost money and even gone out of business due to the price hike. The increase in animal feed prices cannot be separated from the phenomenon of increasing corn prices as the main commodity for animal feed ingredients.

In response, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) through the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health (DG PKH) immediately coordinated the availability of animal feed for the cattle industry.

Quoting from the official page ditjenpkh.pertanian.go.id, Directorate General of PKH, Nasrullah said his agency has collected stakeholders to find a solution to the increasing price of maize.

Corn is one of the main ingredients of animal feed. This cereal plant is one of the plants whose entire part can be processed and utilized. Like the seeds are the main ingredient of chicken feed. Or dry leaves and stems can be processed into cattle feed ingredients.

Corn was chosen as a raw material for animal feed because it contains 70% of carbohydrates, 10% of protein, and 5% of fat. There is also a starch content of corn plants ranging from 60-80%. This content makes corn easy to digest. Not only that, corn has more nutrients than rice bran, soybean, or pollard and the process of serving it is relatively easy.

Palm Kernel Meal, an Alternative to Corn as the Main Ingredient of Animal Feed

The high cost of feed has forced farmers to look for alternative sources of feed ingredients. The most important is to make raw materials rich in protein and energy. These raw materials must also be available in the long term, cheap, and not compete with basic human needs. One of the potential animal feed ingredients that can be used as an option is palm kernel meal.

Palm kernel meal is one of the products of palm kernel processing. It accounts for 45% of the palm kernel. Palm kernel meal contains 14 17% of protein, 12 18% of dietary fiber, and 10, 5% of fat. Therefore, palm kernel meal can be utilized as an alternative raw material for animal feed.

In cattle, palm kernel meal can be used as a raw material for animal feed. Palm kernel cake can increase the weight of cattle up to 70 grams per head in one day.

The same applies to poultry. The 5 to 15% of low fiber content in palm kernel meal is very good for chicken digestion. In addition, palm kernel meal is also beneficial for controlling bad germs such as Salmonella.

Comparison of Palm Kernel Meal and Corn for Animal Feedstuffs

Maize is a seasonal plant that belongs to a type of grass with a single stem. Maize is highly preferred by livestock as it fulfills the requirements of a source of energy. Not only that, corn is also easy to process, easy to mix with other food ingredients, and easy to make in large portions.

However, the disadvantage of maize is protein deficiency, so it must be consumed with other protein sources such as meal or leguminous forage.

Corn has a nutritional content consisting of 86% dry matter, 6.9% fat, 4.3% aggressive fiber, 61.8% extractable material without nitrogen, 9.7% aggressive protein. There is also the nutritional content of corn pollard which is 86% dry matter, 15.7% aggressive fiber, 51 % extractive material without nitrogen, and 12.9% aggressive protein.

Palm kernel meal (BIS) is one of the by-products of palm kernel processing with a content of 45-4% of palm kernel. Palm kernel meal usually has a water content of less than 10% and a nutritional fraction of 60% in the form of cellulose, fat, protein, arabinoxylan, glucuronoxylan, and minerals.

The material can be obtained by chemical processes or by mechanical methods. Although palm kernel meal has a low protein content, the quality is quite good and has large crude fiber. Pasaribu's research in 2018 mentioned the nutrients in palm kernel cake in the form of protein content of 14 to 17%, 9.5% to 10.5% fat, and aggressive fiber of 12-63%.

Currently, the government has issued a price reference for dry shelled maize in Bappenas regulation No. 5 of 2022 from 3,150 per kg to 4,200 per kg. With this price, the government expects corn farmers to get a normal price and the animal feed industry to enjoy raw materials at competitive prices. For comparison, the price of palm kernel meal in a 1-kilogram package starts at IDR 2,200.

Benefits of Palm Kernel Meal

Palm oil has prebiotics that are very useful for the digestion of food in the gut. Hanifa's research in 2016 reported that palm kernel meal has Mannan Oligosaccharides (MOS) that can function as probiotics to stimulate the growth of probiotic germs, thus indirectly regulating pathogenic germs in the digestive tract.

The mixture of nutrients in palm kernel meal makes it a feed raw material with a fairly large amount of nutrients. The amount of nutrients can provide energy for livestock. It has been proven to catfish in Hadijah's 2019 research.

Let's Switch to Using Palm Kernel Meal as Animal Feed Ingredient

Before becoming an animal feed ingredient, palm kernel meal needs to be fermented with fungi and germs, such as Rhizopus oligosporus, Aspergillus niger, or Eupenicillium javanicum to lower the aggressive fiber value. The fermentation process can increase the protein value of palm kernel meal and is good for livestock digestion. If farmers find it difficult to obtain these fungi and germs, they can use probiotics on the market such as: SOC (Liquid Organic Supplement) from PT HCS, Tangguh Probiotics, EM4, Starbio, etc.

This fermentation process has increased the protein value of palm kernel meal from 14% to 23%. Not only is the nutritional content great for animal feed, the price of palm kernel cake is also quite cheap and the availability is abundant. The reason is that Indonesia is the world's number one palm oil producing country. If farmers find it difficult to make their own fermented palm kernel cake, there are now many palm kernel cake sold in packaged form as needed.

Makmur Amanah Sejahtera Provides Palm Kernel Meal

Seeing that the animal feed industry is increasing every year, it can be predicted that the supply of animal feed ingredients will also increase. So it requires the stability of feed products distributed to farmers.

Therefore, Makmur Amanah Sejahtera is here to be an innovative solution to the supply of cheap and quality animal feed raw materials. Makmur Amanah Sejahtera, is an industry engaged in animal feed since 2020. Has been registered with the Minister of Investment and the Head of Investment Coordination in 2021 as an animal feed supplier.

Here, a variety of animal feed raw material products are available with the best service that contributes to the modernization of animal feed. Trading of animal feed raw materials by Makmur Amanah Sejahtera already running with a capacity of 100 tons per month. Our flagship commodity is palm kernel meal. However, not only palm kernel meal, Makmur Amanah Sejahtera is also preparing to develop the supply of palm oil derivatives to meet local and international needs.