The effect of aromatic materials and different storage conditions of feedstuffs

A number of studies had proposed on good storage management, however there is not much of experiments that are done in order to find materials that can ward off any insects or pests from the feedstuffs. Thus, this experiment will show either the aromatic materials are effective or not in having good feed storage conditions. Hence, this study is proposed to determine proper storage conditions and also testing several materials to ward off the infestation of insects or pests besides observing any physical changes towards the feedstuffs. The study was carried out for six weeks and self-observation was done weekly to record any presence of pests besides physical changes towards the treatments. The experiments were arranged in a factorial in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) by 5 × 4 × 2 (type of feedstuffs – fish meal, corn meal, Trichanthera gigantea leaf meal and Indigofera zollingeriana leaf meal; aromatic materials – pandan leaves, garlic, cloves and dried chillies; storage conditions – lit room and dark room) to form 40 treatments including Control group and has triplicates, with a total of 120 experimental units. Insects that were present were isolated first before being observed under microscope. Inferential statistics was used for data analysis. From the experiment, it was revealed that 86.7% of the corn meal treatments are infested with insects by nearly half (46.7%) comes from open storage conditions, whereas 6.67% from fish meal in open storage conditions. The addition of cloves as aromatic materials along with the feedstuffs was seen as a way to reduce the rate of infestation as 3 out of 24 containers of cloves treatments were the only infested with the insects. Hence, it was recommended to store feedstuffs in closed storage condition besides inclusion of cloves in certain feedstuffs such as corn meal to ward off any insects while there is no significant difference between treatments of aromatic materials in both Trichanthera gigantea leaf meal and Indigofera zollingeriana leaf meal in term of insect’s occurrence. Thus, this study can propose the most suitable storage conditions in keeping feedstuffs to those involves in livestock industry especially for small scale farmers that do not have proper feed storage facilities. Besides proposing on how to keep insects or pests away from the feedstuffs kept in regular feed container so that the feedstuffs can last longer without any deterioration effects.