Cattle Farms With Palm Oil Plantations Already, Sheep Farms With Palm Oil Plantations?

"It is He Who has brought down the rain from the sky for you, some of it has become a drink and some of it has grown up, the plants which are in your place of grazing your cattle. "(Qur'an 16:10)

"Eat and graze your animals. Verily in this, there are signs of the power of Allah for those who understand. "(Qur'an, 20:54)

"Muslims are syirkah (sharia business cooperation) to three things, in terms of pasture (land), water and fire (energy)". (HR. Sunan Abu Daud).

The lack of meat production in Indonesia, which is indicated by the high planned import of meat that reaches 100,000 tons of buffalo meat from India, is a pity. Moreover, there is often news about smuggling haram meat such as wild boar meat in a number of regions. This is considering the enormous potential of livestock that can be developed in Indonesia. The large number of large plantations in Indonesia has the potential to be integrated with livestock, for example palm oil plantations which reach an area of ​​12 million hectares with palm oil (CPO and PKO) production reaching more than 40 million tons / year. With this area, of course, very much livestock can be developed as the main producer of meat. While other plantations are also potential such as coconut plantations with an area of ​​3.7 million hectares, rubber 2.5 million hectares, albasia more than 1 million hectares and so on.

Cattle farms integrated with palm oil plantations have been carried out in a number of places in Indonesia. This is a good thing and needs to be supported. Optimizing cattle farms on palm oil plantations can be done by using good grazing techniques. If at present almost all of them are still using continuous grazing techniques that do not pay attention to the quality, quantity and sustainability of pastures as a grazing area for cattle, then efforts to optimize them can be done by rotation grazing. By rotation grazing, the quality, quantity and sustainability of grasslands as sources of animal feed can be optimized especially in conversion to meat.

Sheep actually has many advantages over cows, among others, can eat almost all types of grass, fattening and breeding fast, high mobility so that the distribution of manure for pasture fertilizer is more evenly distributed, and fur can be used for wool production. In Islam sheep also has many virtues compared to cattle, more in detail can be read here, even all the Prophets must have pastored sheep whose wisdom can be read here. For this reason sheep farms should also be encouraged, especially in large plantations such as palm oil plantations. In addition to fulfilling domestic needs, sheep are also needed in Middle Eastern countries, especially Saudi Arabia, which every year requires approximately 2 million heads with a quarter of it in the Hajj season. For Muslims by raising sheep it can also be intended to continue to support the Shari'a of Qurban which is carried out every 10 Dhulhijah. If an average of 1 sheep is 80 kg, then to eliminate imports of 100,000 tons of buffalo meat, 1.25 million sheep are needed per year. And if the average weight of a 300 kg cow with a 50% portion is fulfilled from beef, then the needs of 166,667 cattle and 50% of the sheep will be 625,000 sheep.

Integration of sheep farms with palm oil plantations is also very possible, even with mixed grazing with cattle, it will also be better. A number of studies stated mixed grazing sheep and cattle have resulted in higher meat conversion compared to grazing only sheep and cattle. For palm oil plantations with the integration of livestock, it will also reduce the need for non-subsidized chemical fertilizers which have become the main fertilizer and high cost. In conclusion, by using good grazing techniques and also the selection of suitable livestock, the palm oil plantation business becomes optimal, more profitable and no less important, which is increasingly environmentally friendly.