Evaluation of Dry Matter Intake and Average Daily Gain of Beef Cattle in Samarinda City

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the potential uses of dry matter in the average daily gain of beef cattle and rice straw carrying capacity as a feed alternative. The research used an analytical survey approach, and the location was chosen via purposive sampling. Data collection consisted of conducting interviews and observations based on a questionnaire; then, the collected data were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between dry matter intake level and average daily gain; simple linear regression analysis was used to measure the effect of dry matter intake level on average daily gain. The results revealed that the average daily gain of beef cattle in North Samarinda, Palaran, Sambutan, and Samarinda Ulu (Indonesia) was 0.44 kg, 0.45 kg, 0.45 kg, and 0.45 kg, respectively. The analysis results of dry matter intake level on average daily gain obtained via the regression equation (Y) were as follows: Ỷ = 0.013 + 0.945X. This indicates that every intake of 0.945 kg of dry matter would yield an average daily gain increase of 0.013 kg. Effective utilization of available abundant feed resources (rice straw) is the key to economic maintenance of cattle; however, it tends to have low nutrition and low digestibility, so it is not given as a single feed because it cannot meet beef cattle’s dietary needs. This research found that rice straw production (each hectare of rice area) was able to supply alternative feed for beef cattle of 2.7 animal units per year.