Turkey has great potential to be developed as an alternative source of animal protein. However, turkey business actors often experience problems in feed, which in the form of meeting quality feed. Undip’s Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture through the Higher Education Leading Development Research (PPUPT) program have conducted an applied on-farm research on turkey breeders in Undaan Tengah Village, Kudus Regency.
This research is intended to increase the productivity of turkey by utilizing the potential of local feed resources (water hyacinth) as a quality alternative feed. Ir. Bambang Sulistiyanto, M.Agr.Sc., Ph.D, IPU, as the lead researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture (FPP) reported that this research was conducted from mid-July 2019 to September 2020 involving 5 students and 500 turkeys ( from 2 weeks of age to 3 months). Field observations on the local potential of turkey feed, breeder’s version of turkey feed, turkey physiology, behavior of turkey breeders, environmental climatic conditions in turkey breeders and processed turkey have been detailly recorded as research data.
The focus of current research is the development of alternative feed made from water hyacinth to increase turkey productivity. The alternative feed in question is fermented water hyacinth with the starter and feed formulation that we have prepared. The advantage of this fermented product is that it uses a special starter, so that the fermented product can have functional properties, which is, in addition to taking a role in fulfilling nutrition, it also helps increase the immune system of livestock. This fertilized water hyacinth product can be stored for up to three months and when given to livestock, it can increase the daily body weight of turkeys up to 300-500 grams per week, while those given regular local feed can only reach 150-200 grams per week, at the age of 2 months. “This research is expected to provide knowledge and can be applied by partner breeders in Undaan Tengah in particular and turkey breeders in general,” said Bambang (29-09-2020).