Fermentation of Corn Waste for Alternative Feed for Cross Village Chicken

Corn is a commodity that produces food substitutes for rice and is the main source of food for people in rural areas. In addition, it is needed as a constituent of poultry feed. Waste generated from corn plants in the form of straw has the potential to be used as an alternative feed material to replace rice bran for cross-breed chickens. Because corn straw contains organic compounds and inorganic compounds.

Rice bran circulating in the market has decreased in quality due to the addition of milled husk, but the purchase price is quite high and its availability is limited. In addition, the use of rice bran as poultry feed has several limitations due to its high crude fiber content.

Therefore we need other feed ingredients that have almost the same quality as rice bran and come from agricultural waste. The statement was delivered by the Lecturer of the Faculty of Agriculture, State University of Gorontalo, Ir. Ellen J. Saleh, MP, who wrote in a study entitled “The Potential of Fermented Corn Straw as an Alternative Feed Material to Increase the Productivity of Crossed Village Chickens.”

According to Ellen, one of the determining factors for the success of a livestock business is the feed factor. The cost of cross-breeding native chickens reaches 60 to 70% of the total production cost. So that the use of corn straw as chicken feed is one solution to overcome the availability of materials and high feed costs.

“However, the main obstacle to using corn straw as a feed ingredient is the high content of crude fiber.” said the lecturer in the livestock department.

 “So treatment is needed before being given to livestock through a fermentation process with the help of microorganisms to increase the nutritional content of straw.” he continued.

In that study, the microorganism he used was the fungus Trichoderma viride.  That is a group of cellulolytic fungi that can decompose glucose by producing an enzyme cellulase complex. This enzyme functions as a specific decomposing agent to hydrolyze the chemical bonds of cellulose and its derivatives. And can break down cellulose into glucose so that it is easily digested by livestock.

After going through several stages of research, it can be concluded that the use of fermented corn straw as a substitute for rice bran up to 10% in cross-breed chicken feed can improve the performance of both quantity and quality of production. High protein levels, better water holding capacity (WHC) are accompanied by lower fat content in meat.

Research compiled with Prof. Suyadi, Dr. Irfan. H. Djunaidi, and Dr. Eko Widodo is the final dissertation research that has been tested on Monday (12/13/2021) in a hybrid way. Ellen is listed as a student of the Doctoral Program in Animal Science at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Universitas Brawijaya (Fapet UB) batch 2016. (dta)