Soge lagoon ducks produce healthier eggs<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
A stream of ducks exiting from their bamboo pens and walking
\nnoisily toward a lagoon to look for their breakfast brighten up
\nthe morning.<\/p>\n
Once the ducks are out of their pens, the breeders hastily
\njump in, harvesting the hundreds of eggs laying on the floors of
\nthe pens. Later in the afternoon, the ducks will be called out to
\nthe pens again, waiting for the morning to come.<\/p>\n
Soge lagoon in Srigading village in Sanden district, Bantul,
\nsome 30 km south of Yogyakarta, is never going to be quiet again,
\nespecially since a group of local breeders began raising and
\ntending 1,500 ducks in the area last November.<\/p>\n
The sight is an unusual one. Most traditional breeders
\nnormally tend to their ducks in post-harvested rice fields, or
\nsimply keep them in pens.<\/p>\n
But the breeders in Srigading village, grouped under Sido Maju
\nGroup -- which comprises of eight local duck breeders, trying to
\nproduce healthier duck eggs and certainly a better income under
\nthe supervision of Gadjah Mada University's School of Animal
\nHusbandry, and Bantul regency's administration.<\/p>\n
Every day, the ducks lay some 960 eggs, and each of them is
\nsold for Rp 675, some Rp 125 more expensive than for an ordinary
\nduck egg.<\/p>\n
\"We produce healthier eggs -- that's why our eggs are more
\nexpensive than the ordinary ones,\" said Trisno, chairman of Sido
\nMaju Group.<\/p>\n
He said that, by tending to the ducks freely in the lagoon,
\nhis group could save money usually set aside to buy the duck's
\nfood.<\/p>\n
\"By tending to the ducks near the lagoon, we don't need food
\nso much when keeping them in their pens,\" said Trisno, without
\nelaborating.<\/p>\n
According to Trisno, they had to store 1,000 of the eggs for
\nthe university, and 500 others to the Bantul administration every
\nweek to pay parts of their Rp 63.5 million loan the university
\ngave to the breeders through the administration.<\/p>\n
So far, the group has earned a gross income of Rp 27.8 million
\nfor the first two months of the production period between
\nDecember 2001, and January 2002.<\/p>\n
\"We have saved Rp 14 million of them in our bank account. This
\nis our net income for the two months,\" explained Trisno. He added
\nthat the group's members had agreed to save their income in the
\nbank, and would only divide them by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Sri Harimurti of Gadjah Mada University's School of Animal
\nHusbandry, who is also one of the group's supervisors, said that
\nTrisno was not exaggerating when saying that his group produced
\nhealthier eggs.<\/p>\n
\"The lagoon is indeed a paradise for the ducks. It's very rich
\nof natural food source. Algae, baby snails, baby prawn, baby
\ncrab, small fish, and sometimes seaweed, are all good sources of
\nprotein and other important nutrients for the ducks,\" Sri
\nHarimurti said.<\/p>\n
According to Harimurti, such natural food supplies, without
\nchemicals or medicines given to the duck, guaranteed that the
\neggs were richer in Omega 3, containing more pro-vitamin A,
\nvitamin A, and free of antibiotic residue.<\/p>\n
From the outside, Harimurti said, Soge eggs look just like any
\nother duck eggs. Only when they are opened, can one easily see
\nthe difference: Soge eggs have darker yolk. An egg yolk color
\nindex test gives a score of 12 to 15 for Soge eggs.<\/p>\n
\"This is a top score, especially when compared with those
\navailable in local market,\" Harimurti said.<\/p>\n
According to her, duck eggs sold in the Yogyakarta market
\nmostly had an average score of between 7 and 8. She said that an
\negg having the color index score of between 12 and 15 was
\ncategorized into Grade A, or very good, in the market.<\/p>\n
\"This is indeed a very healthy egg,\" said Harimurti, adding
\nthat the fact had motivated the university to attract more local
\nbreeders to follow what had been pioneered by Sido Maju as a way
\nof improving their income as well as produce healthier eggs.<\/p>\n
However, Harimurti also realized that it was not an easy task
\nas most breeders in Soge - also known as the village of the duck
\nbreeders - preferred to tend to their ducks in rice fields,
\nespecially because such rice fields were everywhere in the
\nvillage.<\/p>\n
Besides, this way was considered to give them lower risk of
\nlosing eggs than tending to the ducks freely in the lagoon.<\/p>\n
\"It's a pity, in fact, especially because there are some 10
\nhectares of free land belonging to the Sultan ground in the
\nlagoon that we can use to tend the ducks,\" Harimurti said.<\/p>",
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