In addition to teaching behasa Indonesian, our teacher, Ria, has a fellowship from the government to get a PhD. She worked for the agriculture Dept for several years and talked them into allowing her to do this. She will have to work for them for at least 7 years after getting the degree. Most recently she worked on certifications for ag products for both import and export.
But her first job was working at the ag station in Kaliurang, on the slopes of Mt. Merapi. On our day trip to the area we stopped to walk around so she could visit with her old colleagues. It turned out to be quite interesting. Three activities happen there, bull semen processing, a dairy operation, and research on growing feed for the cattle.
The land is quite rich due to the volcanic ash soil and they put all the manure back into the soil, but still need some chemical fertilizers. One of her jobs was to determine the optimum amount of those chemical fertilizers. They mainly grow something called elephant grass, which goes from seed to maturity at 7 feet tall in 45 days. Amazing. You can sometimes see people on motorcycles with huge bundles of this grass on the back.
We didn't spend much time at the dairy operation but the cows spend most of their lives in stalls due to insufficient space, but when cows are pregnant they get turned out to graze.
The most interesting part for me was the bull semen processing. It is run by a remarkable woman for whom Ria has a strong affection. She is a real rarity in Indonesia, a career woman who never married. She is smart and well travelled and speaks fluent English, and although she officially retired 5 years ago, still shows up and works most days. She is very knowledgable about the cattle industry and we had an interesting and wide ranging discussion. The island of Java, where we all live, is the most densely populated island on earth and she says there really isn't enough land for people and cattle, but the people see a cow as an investment and want to own them. They can't make any money selling the milk as the large milk processors hold all the power and pay the farmers only what they want to pay. There is not a culture of cheese making here although that could be a value added product otherwise.
The bull semen is sold at or below cost to farmers in this region. I wasn't sure whether I was relieved or sorry to hear that we had just missed the collection process. She became very emotional and teared up when talking about the bulls going to a slaughterhouse at the end of their useful life. They are like her children. The bulls get walked like a dog on a leash every day - not enough room for them to roam.
The station is about 3000 feet above sea level so has a delightful climate and the staff has planted various fruit trees around. The ag station has a beautiful view of Mt. Merapi, which erupted in dramatic fashion just about one year ago. They had to evacuate the animals, and thehumans in a large area had to wear masks for 2 months. It was a real hardship as the airport was closed also for 2 months and tourism was negatively impacted. They had about 5 inches of ash on the ground in Jogjakarta which is about a hour's drive from Kaliurang -about as far up the mountain as one can drive.
I have several photos from our visit. Note the government office with the typewriter. That says volumes about how the government spends its money but that is a topic for another day.
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