For those of you who raise livestock, you may already be familiar with palm oil cake. This is one of the wastes that is often used as animal feed because it is considered to have high nutrition for animals, especially cows. In the market, palm oil cake is widely available at various prices, which are relatively affordable, depending on the packaging.
As is known, when raising animals, feed is one of the mandatory needs that should not be forgotten. This is because feed is a source of material and energy to support the survival and growth of animals, although it is also the largest component of production costs. Without enough feed, of course your pet will not grow perfectly, it may even die.
Ingredients and Advantages of Palm Oil Cake
Fortunately, now there are many ingredients that can be used as animal feed, including from waste. Well, one of the wastes that is popularly used as feed is oil palm cake, or often just called palm oil cake. As the name suggests, palm oil cake is a by-product of palm oil processing, the proportion of which is at most 12 percent from fresh fruit bunches.
This palm oil cake is said to generally contain less than 10 percent water and 60 percent of its nutritional content in the form of cellulose, fat, protein, arabinoxylan, glucuronoxylan, and minerals. Even though the protein content of palm oil cake is low, it is quite good with high crude fiber. With its relatively large nutritional composition and production, palm kernel meal has the potential to be used as animal feed, both for ruminants and non-ruminants. However, because palm kernel meal has a low palatability, it is not suitable for monogastric livestock and is more often fed to ruminants, especially dairy cows.
Other references state that the dry matter of palm oil cake contains 16.8 percent crude protein, 11.9 percent crude fat, 22.6 percent crude fiber, 4.07 percent ash, and BETN (extract material without nitrogen) of 44.63 percent, and TDN (total digestible nitrogen) of 78 percent. Palm oil cake is a source of protein which is easily degraded in the rumen. Feed protein that enters the rumen will be degraded by rumen microbes into amino acids, then deamination into NH3 and a-keto acids.
Meanwhile, summarized from the Aceh Agricultural Technology Study Center website, palm kernel meal is said to have a high nutritional value compared to other wastes because it contains 15 percent crude protein and 4,230 kcal per kg crude energy, so it can act as a feed booster or concentrate. The palm oil industry itself can produce waste that has the potential to be used as animal feed such as palm kernel cake, fruit juice fiber, empty fruit bunches, and solids.
The same site explains, palm oil cake has potential as a source of nutrition. The nutritional content of palm oil cake is 12.63 to 17.41 percent crude protein, 9.98 to 25.79 percent crude fiber, 7.12 to 15.15 percent crude fat, and 3,217 gross energy. kcal per kg to 3,454 kcal per kg dry matter.
Several sources on the internet also state that palm oil meal has superior nutritional value compared to cassava, corn, coffee husks, sago pulp, peanut shells, cassava, grass, or seaweed meal as animal feed. However, this material is also not without drawbacks, such as its relatively high crude fiber content, contamination of shell waste which affects the nutritional value of palm oil cake. This amino acid content and low digestibility have now been extensively studied in Indonesia in various ways such as culturing microorganisms and microbial cultures. Thus, an increase in crude protein from 14 percent can be achieved up to 24 percent.
Animal feed palm oil cake
As animal feed, palm oil cake can be given as much as 30 percent of the total animal feed. However, according to some studies, palm kernel meal can be used up to 40 percent in concentrates for the purpose of fattening livestock, which is supplemented with 20 percent molasses. Feed consisting only of 75 percent palm kernel meal and 25 percent molasses can be given as animal feed and will produce a digestibility of 82.6 percent. This is not much different from the digestibility of high quality concentrate feed, which is 84.3 percent, while without molasses it is only 77.8 percent.
Meanwhile, in animal feed additives containing up to 55.5 percent palm kernel meal, molasses is used up to 7.50 percent and produces the same live weight gain as commercial concentrates. Based on research using palm kernel cake as much as 30 percent plus 3.25 percent molasses and other ingredients in livestock, the results can be equal to when livestock k is given conventional feed.
Palm Oil Cake for Fish Feed
Aside from being used as cattle feed, palm oil cake can also be used as fish feed. The results of research conducted by the Bogor Agricultural Institute revealed that as much as 8 percent palm oil cake in feed can produce optimal growth performance for catfish. Besides being used for catfish farming, palm oil cake can also be used for other fish farming, such as tilapia, gouramy, and catfish.
There are at least three benefits that can be obtained by using palm oil cake as fish feed, namely increasing the variety and supply of ration raw materials, reducing environmental pollution, and reducing the cost of rations. Unfortunately, like cattle feed, palm oil cake as fish feed is also not without drawbacks, such as high fiber content, poor quality protein, still contains a lot of fat, easily becomes rancid, has a protein content of only around 17 percent, contains lysine and relatively low methionine compared to other sources of vegetable protein, as well as high crude fiber which fish may find difficult to digest.
Unfortunately, although many studies say that palm oil cake is suitable as animal feed, the utilization of this waste is considered not optimal, especially as feed for dairy cattle. Generally, factories have not utilized this material optimally, and even tend to just throw it away. In addition, many also choose to sell this palm oil waste abroad (export).
Even though it has not been widely used, it is not difficult to find palm kernel cake. You can buy this material at animal markets or even online trading sites. If you want to provide palm oil cake to your livestock, the price is actually relatively affordable and here is the latest information on the price range of palm oil cake on the Indonesian market. 250 grRp. 7,500 Artemia Salina Palm Oilcake 500 grRp. 15,000 Artemia Salina Oil Palm Cake 1 kgRp. 30,000 10 kg Palm OilcakeRp. 69,000 – Rp. 125,000
