For those of you who raise livestock, you may already be familiar with the Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE). This is a waste often used as animal feed because it is considered to have high nutrition for animals, especially cows. In the market, PKE is widely available at various prices, which are relatively affordable, depending on the packaging.
As is known, when raising animals, feed is one of the mandatory needs that should not be forgotten. This is because feed is a source of material and energy to support the survival and growth of animals, although it is also the largest component of production costs. Without sufficient feed, your pet will not grow perfectly; it may even die.
Ingredients and Benefits of Palm Kernel Expeller
Fortunately, now many ingredients can be used as animal feed, including waste. Well, one of the wastes that are popularly used as feed is palm oil cake, often called PKE. As the name suggests, Palm Kernel Expeller is a by-product of processing palm oil, the proportion of which is produced at most is 12% from fresh fruit bunches.
This PKE is said to generally contain less than 10% water and 60% nutritional levels in the form of cellulose, fat, protein, arabinoxylan, glucuronoxylan, and minerals. Even though the protein content of Palm Kernel Expeller is low, it is quite good with high crude fiber. With its relatively large nutritional composition and production, PKE has the potential to be used as animal feed, both for ruminants and non-ruminants.
Other references state that the dry matter of palm oil cake contains 16.8% crude protein, 11.9% crude fat, 22.6% crude fiber, 4.07% ash, and BETN (extract material without nitrogen) of 44.63%, and total digestible nitrogen of 78%. Palm oil cake is a source of protein that is easily degraded in rumen. Rumen microbes will degrade feed protein that enters the rumen into amino acids, then deamination into NH3 and a-keto acids.
Meanwhile, summarized from the Aceh Agricultural Technology Study Center website, PKE is stated to have a high nutritional value compared to other wastes because it contains 15% crude protein and 4,230 kcal per kg crude energy, so it can act as a feed booster or concentrate. The palm oil industry itself can produce waste that has the potential to be used as animal feed, such as PKE, fruit juice fiber, empty fruit bunches, and solids.
The same site explains Palm Kernel Expeller PKE has the potential as a source of nutrition. The nutritional content of the PKE is a crude protein of 12.63% to 17.41%, crude fiber of 9.98% to 25.79%, crude fat of 7.12% to 15.15%, and gross energy of 3,217 kcal per kg to 3,454 kcal per kg dry matter.
Several sources on the internet also state that the Palm Kernel Expeller has superior nutritional value compared to cassava, corn, coffee husks, sago pulp, peanut shells, cassava, grass, or seaweed meal as animal feed. However, this material is also not without drawbacks, such as its relatively high crude fiber content and contamination of shell waste which affects the nutritional value of the Palm Kernel Expeller. This amino acid content and low digestibility have been extensively studied in Indonesia in various ways such as culturing microorganisms and microbial cultures. Thus, an increase in crude protein from 14% can be achieved up to 24%.
Palm Kernel Expeller for Animal Feed and PKE Dosage
As animal feed, PKE Palm Kernel Expeller can be given as much as 30% of the total animal feed. However, according to some studies, PKE can be used up to 40% in concentrates for fattening livestock, supplemented with 20% molasses. Feed consisting only of 75% PKE and 25% molasses can be given for animal feed and will produce a digestibility of 82.6%. This is not much different from the digestibility of high-quality concentrate feed, which is 84.3%, whereas, without molasses, it is only 77.8%.
Meanwhile, in animal feed additives containing up to 55.5% PKE, molasses is used up to 7.50% and produces the same live weight gain as commercial concentrates. Based on research using PKE as much as 30% plus 3.25% molasses and other ingredients in livestock, the results can be equal to those given conventional feed.
Palm Kernel Expeller for Fish Feed
Apart from being used as cattle feed, Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE) can also be used as fish feed. The results of research conducted by the Bogor Agricultural Institute revealed that as much as 8% of PKE in feed could produce optimal growth performance for catfish. Besides being used for catfish farming, the Palm Kernel Expeller can also be used for other fish farming, such as tilapia, gourami, and catfish.
There are at least three benefits that can be obtained when using Palm Kernel Expeller as fish feed, namely increasing the variety and supply of ration raw materials, reduto fatten to fattenng environmental pollution, and reducing ration costs. Unfortunately, like cattle feed, PKE as fish feed is also not without drawbacks, such as high fiber content, poor quality protein, still contains a lot of fat, easily becomes rancid, has a protein content of only around 17%, lysine content. and methionine which is still relatively low compared to other sources of vegetable protein, as well as high crude fiber which may be difficult for fish to digest.
Even though it’s not widely used yet, it’s not difficult to find PKE. You can buy this material at karuniatinggiindoneisa.com, the palm kernel expeller price is actually relatively affordable and especially if the company that buys the PKE enters into a long-term contract.
