Utilization of Soybean Straw in an Integrated Soybean-Beef Cattle Farming to Improve Productivity and Reproductive Performance in Papua, Indonesia

Abstract

Feed availability and quality remain important constraints to beef cattle production in tropical farming systems, with implications for animal productivity and reproductive performance. This study evaluated a farmer-managed integrated soybean-beef cattle farming system based on soybean straw utilization and cattle manure recycling and compared it with a non-integrated farming system in Papua, Indonesia. The study included four beef cattle in each farming system (n = 4 per system). The evaluated parameters included soybean grain and straw production, cattle feed intake, daily body-weight gain, postpartum estrus interval, and economic performance. The integrated system showed higher observed soybean grain and dry straw production, reaching 2.32 and 4.54 t ha -1 , respectively, compared with 1.53 and 3.05 t ha -1 in the non-integrated system. Daily body-weight gain was 0.36 ± 0.27 kg head -1 day -1 in the integrated system and 0.34 ± 0.06 kg head -1 day -1 in the non-integrated system. The postpartum estrus interval was shorter in the integrated system (25.86 ± 10.40 days) than in the non-integrated system (44.75 ± 18.84 days). Economically, the integrated system generated a higher profit per family (IDR 15,955,500) and R/C ratio (1.83) than the non-integrated system (IDR 5,841,250 and 1.51, respectively), with an MBCR of 1.30 for the integrated system. Overall, the integrated system was associated with higher observed crop productivity, a shorter postpartum estrus interval, and more favorable economic indicators under the conditions of the present farm-level comparison. These findings provide empirical evidence that soybean straw utilization and cattle manure recycling can facilitate resource exchange between crop and livestock components and support integrated soybean-beef cattle production in Papua. However, because the biological comparison involved four cattle per system and was analyzed descriptively, the observed differences should not be interpreted as statistically demonstrated treatment effects.