Developing maize and beef cattle integrated farming system and its sustainability

Crop livestock integrated farming system has been adopted widely across the county in Indonesia. One of the benefits of its implementation in the field is the provision of feeds for livestock particularly in the dry season. Maize is the potential crop for implementing integrated farming system due to the substitution of its leaves, cornstalks, and corncob as the raw materials for feeding livestock. This study was aimed to develop the model of maize and beef cattle integrated farming system. Bima 20 URI variety was introduced as the stay-green corn in the farm area of 10 ha which has involved 10 farmers as the cooperator farmers and 5 farmers as the control model. Managing maize waste for silage, beef cattle housing, and making organic fertilizer from cattle waste were employed by cooperating farmers. Study results showed that the average yield of BIMA 20 URI is 5.4 tons per ha with the net income of IDR9,945,000 per ha per season. However, non-cooperating farmers produced shelled corn of 3.5 tons per ha per season with the net income of IDR5,210,000 per ha per season. Moreover, raising five beef cattle as the non-model implementation reached the net income of IDR12,830,000 per year, while the net income of cooperating farmers as the integrated model of raising beef cattle is IDR23,625,000 per year and value added from making organic fertilizer is IDR9,330,000. Therefore, the total net income of cooperator farmers by implementing the model of maize and beef cattle integrated farming system is IDR32,955,000 per year. The model provides higher income than the control model so it is highly recommended to be implemented.