Chemical Composition and Production of Forages edible to Timor Deer (Cervus timorensis de Blainville 1882) in the Palu Valley M.S. Arifuddin1, a), Damry1, R. Utomo2, H. Hartadi2
1Faculty of Animal Science and Fisheries, Tadulako University, Palu 94119, Indonesia
2Afaculty of Animal Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 55288, Yogyakarta
a) Corresponding author: sadik_arifuddin[at]yahoo.com
Abstract
A study was carried out from June to December 2011 to determine the chemical composition and production of forages edible to Timor deer (Cervus timorensis) in Palu, Indonesia. Grass forages were samples with a destructive sampling method using a pair of quadrants with an individual size of 1 x 1 m. For tree legumes, leaves samples were taken at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, and 18 weeks after an initial uniform cutting of the leaves. All samples were subjected to a standard proximate analysis for nutritional contents. The ^carrying capacity^ of the forages for Cervus timorensis was calculated with some assumptions. Results indicated that the ^carrying capacity^ of Pennisetum purpureum, native grass, Ipomea spp., and Zea mays for Cervus timorensis (head/ha/year) 59.96, 9.84, 23.02 and 69.16 , respectivley. For legumes, the highest capacity was for Leucaena leucocephala (3.7 head/ha/year) harvested at 6 weeks, while the lowest one is for Sesbania grandiflora (1.8 head/ha/year) harvested at 12 weeks.
Keywords: Chemical composition, forages production, timor deer, Palu valley
