Soge lagoon ducks produce healthier eggs

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A stream of ducks exiting from their bamboo pens and walking noisily toward a lagoon to look for their breakfast brighten up the morning.

Once the ducks are out of their pens, the breeders hastily jump in, harvesting the hundreds of eggs laying on the floors of the pens. Later in the afternoon, the ducks will be called out to the pens again, waiting for the morning to come.

Soge lagoon in Srigading village in Sanden district, Bantul, some 30 km south of Yogyakarta, is never going to be quiet again, especially since a group of local breeders began raising and tending 1,500 ducks in the area last November.

The sight is an unusual one. Most traditional breeders normally tend to their ducks in post-harvested rice fields, or simply keep them in pens.

But the breeders in Srigading village, grouped under Sido Maju Group -- which comprises of eight local duck breeders, trying to produce healthier duck eggs and certainly a better income under the supervision of Gadjah Mada University's School of Animal Husbandry, and Bantul regency's administration.

Every day, the ducks lay some 960 eggs, and each of them is sold for Rp 675, some Rp 125 more expensive than for an ordinary duck egg.

"We produce healthier eggs -- that's why our eggs are more expensive than the ordinary ones," said Trisno, chairman of Sido Maju Group.

He said that, by tending to the ducks freely in the lagoon, his group could save money usually set aside to buy the duck's food.

"By tending to the ducks near the lagoon, we don't need food so much when keeping them in their pens," said Trisno, without elaborating.

According to Trisno, they had to store 1,000 of the eggs for the university, and 500 others to the Bantul administration every week to pay parts of their Rp 63.5 million loan the university gave to the breeders through the administration.

So far, the group has earned a gross income of Rp 27.8 million for the first two months of the production period between December 2001, and January 2002.

"We have saved Rp 14 million of them in our bank account. This is our net income for the two months," explained Trisno. He added that the group's members had agreed to save their income in the bank, and would only divide them by the end of the year.

Sri Harimurti of Gadjah Mada University's School of Animal Husbandry, who is also one of the group's supervisors, said that Trisno was not exaggerating when saying that his group produced healthier eggs.

"The lagoon is indeed a paradise for the ducks. It's very rich of natural food source. Algae, baby snails, baby prawn, baby crab, small fish, and sometimes seaweed, are all good sources of protein and other important nutrients for the ducks," Sri Harimurti said.

According to Harimurti, such natural food supplies, without chemicals or medicines given to the duck, guaranteed that the eggs were richer in Omega 3, containing more pro-vitamin A, vitamin A, and free of antibiotic residue.

From the outside, Harimurti said, Soge eggs look just like any other duck eggs. Only when they are opened, can one easily see the difference: Soge eggs have darker yolk. An egg yolk color index test gives a score of 12 to 15 for Soge eggs.

"This is a top score, especially when compared with those available in local market," Harimurti said.

According to her, duck eggs sold in the Yogyakarta market mostly had an average score of between 7 and 8. She said that an egg having the color index score of between 12 and 15 was categorized into Grade A, or very good, in the market.

"This is indeed a very healthy egg," said Harimurti, adding that the fact had motivated the university to attract more local breeders to follow what had been pioneered by Sido Maju as a way of improving their income as well as produce healthier eggs.

However, Harimurti also realized that it was not an easy task as most breeders in Soge - also known as the village of the duck breeders - preferred to tend to their ducks in rice fields, especially because such rice fields were everywhere in the village.

Besides, this way was considered to give them lower risk of losing eggs than tending to the ducks freely in the lagoon.

"It's a pity, in fact, especially because there are some 10 hectares of free land belonging to the Sultan ground in the lagoon that we can use to tend the ducks," Harimurti said.