The Faculty of Animal Science UGM is developing GaMa cows which stands for Gagah and Macho, which is the result of simultaneous cross-breeding of three types of cows, namely Belgian Blue, Wagyu and Brahman cows. The three types of cattle have their respective advantages. Belgian Blue Cows, for example, are known as cows that have a large weight and are muscular, Wagyu Cows have delicious and tender meat, while Brahman Cows have large hulls and are adaptive to tropical environments.
“We are targeting the development of GaMa cattle to be completed in 20 years. Now it has been going on for 6 years with two year old cattle reaching weights of 550-600 kilograms,” said Dean of the Faculty of Animal Science UGM, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ali Agus, told reporters, Monday (13/1).
According to Ali Agus, the lengthy time frame of the GaMa cattle development process is very natural to result in a stable breed while obtaining various data. “For now, we don’t have data on carcass quality, meat quality, because we haven’t slaughtered the beef until it has the desired level of derivatives,” he said.
In the meantime, based on data collected from the research team, said Ali Agus, the weight of this cow is much greater than that of local cattle. “The difference with other crossbred cows is up to 100 kilograms,” he said
Ali Agus described that other types of crossbred cows need an age of about 3-4 years to reach the ideal weight so they can be slaughtered. On the other hand, GaMa cows, according to him, at the age of three can weigh around 900 kilograms.
He said that currently there are around 200 GaMa cows that have been developed which will then continue to be raised and crossbred in order to get better and more stable genetic breeds. However, this cow development works in collaboration with partners so that feed supply and supervision are more controlled.
The Gama cattle development center is located in a cow workshop and is located in the CV Berkah Andini Lestari Cow Workshop Installation in Widodomartani, Ngemplak Sleman and PT Widodo Makmur Perkasa (WMP), Jambakan Village, Bayat District, Klaten Regency, Central Java. During the development period, these GaMa cows receive special feed derived from agricultural waste using a multifunctional feed additive formula containing minerals, immunomodulatory vitamins and herbal extracts.
Answering questions from reporters, if the development of this cow is successful and is proven to produce a type of cow with superior weight and higher quality meat, it can be bred to encourage increased beef production in the country. “The goal is to help and increase the supply of meat production. We need a supply of meat. Right now, on average one cow is only able to produce 100-150 kilograms, “he said.
Waluyo (54), coordinator of the Berkah Andini Lestari cow workshop, said that the three GaMa cows they raise are treated like other cows. However, the cows for this study received special fermented feed from the researchers using forage feed and fermented concentrates containing probiotics. “We call the feed Burger Sauce Feed,” he said.
For one GaMa cow, said Waluyo, it consumes 15 kilograms of feed. According to his observations, the calves of these Gama cows have the dominant character of the Belgian Blue cows which are double-muscled and a bit wild.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18926-dongkrak-produksi-daging-nasional-ugm-kembangkan-sapi-gama
