Mixed farming systems in the beef value chain of the city of Malang, Indonesia

Beef demand is high on the densely populated island of Java, Indonesia and local production does not meet the demand. We studied the beef value chain (BVC) of the city of Malang on East Java, where 1 million inhabitants predominantly consume beef in Bakso, a meatball soup. Three farming system are important in the BVC: breeder farms (mixed crop-livestock farms with reproductive cows, starter bull calves and replacement female calves), feeder farms (with 1 to 10 bulls as a side activity) and feedlots. We conducted on farm interviews (n = 65) and expert interviews to study the role of these farming systems in Malang city’s BVC and input use and production performance at the farming systems. During farm visits live weight and age of 240 bulls were recorded, as well as age at first calving, and length of calving interval if reproductive animals were present. Average daily gain (ADG) was estimated for bulls for which live weight was recorded more than once. We estimated that for a daily supply of 100 finished bulls of 500 kg live weight to the city of Malang, around 100,000 smallholder breeder farms supplied the starter calves, around 30,000 feeder farms were involved in the intermediate to late fattening stage, and around 40 feedlots were involved in finishing the bulls. Feedlots purchased bulls preferably at a weight of 400 kg from feeder farms or directly from breeder farms and such bulls could vary in age between 1.5 and 5 yrs. ADG of the bulls at a feedlot was approximately 1 kg, independent of age (P > 0.05). An essential principle of the BVC was that production of starter calves at the breeder farms was at a low input basis which makes the BVC resilient. The BVC could reach higher output by improving the reproductive and growth performance at breeder farms. This would, however, imply a transition of a low input to a relatively high input farming system which would not be feasible under present price levels of inputs and outputs and which would reduce the number of smallholders benefitting.