NEWS ▶▶▶
Wageningen-based collaboration on pelleting co-products
In the unique, Wageningen-based collaboration Pelleting in Circular Agriculture (PCA), experts from animal science, process technology, and physics are investigating how to make animal feed sustainable and thus give power to the pel- let. Pelleted animal feed is rich in cereals, but in order to further move towards a more circular agriculture, more co-products should be used to feed animals such as pigs and chickens. Figuring out how to replace cereals in animal feed, how- ever, is a daunting task, because, in addition to providing nutritional value, the cereals make the pellets stronger.
The researchers working on this project inves- tigate how more co-products from agriculture and the human food industry – such as those created during the production of food or bio- fuels, for example – could be included in pel- leted feed. The physical and chemical proper- ties of these co-products differ from those of complete cereals.
Fonterra starts trial with seaweed
Zetadec’s Menno Thomas, who co-coordinates the project: “The main problem when replac- ing cereals with co-products in pellet feed is that such modifications weaken the pellets, making them brittle. This leads to losses throughout the entire chain, from production and transport to storage, and even to less nu- trition when they are fed to pigs and chickens. The challenge then is to find new ways to in- corporate these co-products into animal feed.” The aim of the project is to combine expertise in fundamental and applied sciences by relat- ing studies conducted at a microscopic level to those carried out in the pellet factory.
How to slow pig growth in Covid times?
US swine researchers have been reporting the results of a study in which they were able to help producers slow the growth of hogs dur- ing the Covid-19 epidemic in North America, while they waited for slaughterhouses to re- open. In a press release on the university’s website, Prof Mike Tokach, swine nutritionist at Kansas State University, said the study focused on reducing protein in the animals’ diet. They focused on pigs weighing 91 kg (200 lbs), tar- geting the last 32-36 kg (70-80 lbs) those ani- mals needed to reach market weight.
Testing four finisher pig diets The researchers tested four diets to compare the effect of reduced lysine on pigs’ growth: 1. A diet with normal amounts of lysine for the entire late finishing period.
2. A ‘slow’ diet with normal amounts of lysine until the final two weeks of feeding, then a corn-based diet that included only vitamins and minerals.
3. A ‘slow’ diet with reduced amounts (25%) of lysine for the entire late finishing period.
4. A ‘slow’ diet with reduced lysine (25%) until the final two weeks of feeding, then a corn-based diet that included only vitamins and minerals.
Prof DeRouchey said, “Ultimately what we found through this research is that, when the pigs were on a slow diet, we reduced their growth performance fairly substantially. In fact, they were about 14 pounds (6.3 kg) lighter at the end of the 44-day finishing period thanks to feeding reduced levels of amino acid.” He added: “Interestingly, when we put them on a slow diet and then moved them to a corn- based diet, they were another 12 pounds (5.4kg), or were about 26 pounds (11.7kg) lighter after the 44-day period, which is very substantial. These diets achieved the goal of keeping those pigs on the farm while they’re still consuming the full amount of feed.” Prof Tokach said, “One thing we’ve learned is that you don’t want to start these low-protein diets too soon. If we do that too early in the pig’s life, when they have very high levels of protein deposition, we can expect some vices
(problems) to occur, and that’s when you can expect difficulties on the animal welfare side. But, when we start those diets after they are 200 pounds (91kg) or heavier, we don’t see any adverse effects.”
Feed efficiency is poor In the news item on the Kansas State website, Prof DeRouchey noted that one consequence of keeping the pigs on the farm longer is that feed efficiency is poor compared to normal times. Prof Tokach said: “but when you can’t take those pigs to market and they’re already getting close to market weight, your goal is to minimise the cost of keeping those pigs for an- other day. So, even though feed efficiency is poor, the cost of that diet is so much lower, as we aren’t including protein (amino acids). The actual cost per day is lower for pig that are fed the corn-based holding diet. Hopefully, we won’t have to use a strategy like this in the fu- ture but, if we have to, I think we have a pretty good idea of how we can prescribe the levels of performance that we want to achieve.”
▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 7, 2020 33
Dairy giant Fonterra is partnering with Australi- an company Sea Forest to see if using seaweed in cattle feed can reduce emissions from com- mercial dairy
herds.The trial will use asparagop- sis, a seaweed grown naturally in Australia and New Zealand, as a supplement feed for herds in Tasmania during the upcoming milk season. In laboratory testing led by Australian research or- ganisation CSIRO, the seaweed has been shown to have the potential to reduce emissions from cows by more than 80%. Fonterra Australia Sus- tainability manager Jack Holden says the trial with asparagopsis might also demonstrate that there is an increase in productivity. “So, if the use of this seaweed proves to be profitable for farmers and effectively and safely reduces emissions of methane, while it can be easily added to the feed, this will work and be adopt- ed widely,” he expects. “It will eventually be- come part of normal practice for dairy farmers.” Fonterra intends to start trials in the current milk season (2020-2021).
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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