Physical and chemical quality of forage feed pellets with different types of materials and compositions

Abstract The aimed of this study was to determine the physical (durability) and chemical quality of forage feed pellets with different raw materials and compositions. This study used two (2) weed raw materials with different forms, namely in the form of fresh and in the form of hay that has been milled. Each raw material was formulated and processed in the same way, a mixture of forage and rice bran, consisted of 90%: 20% and 80%: 20% (calculated based on dry matter, mixed in as fed), pelleted, then dried in the sunshine. Each treatment has three (3) replications. Dried forage pellets were tested with the PDI (pellet durability index) test and chemical quality test (proximate) in the Forage and Pasture Science Laboratory. The experimental design used a Randomized Completely Block Design where there were blocks of material types and blocks of material composition. The variables observed were physical quality in the form of PDI and chemical quality in the form of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), extract ether (EE) and nitrogen-free extract (NFE). The data were statistically analysed with program SPSS version 26. If there was a significant difference, it was continued with the least significant different (LSD) test. The conclusion of this study was that the physical quality of forage pellets (PDI number) made from weed ( Synedrella nodiflora ) or Legetan was affected by composition, but neither hay nor fresh weed material affected its quality. The type of raw material in the form of hay and fresh affects the chemical quality of forage pellets in the form of DM, OM, CP, CF and NFE, but does not affect EE. EE was influenced by the composition of the pellets