PPO 4: There seems to be every chance there will be plenty of co- products available in the future. Latest indications from the Indonesian Palm Oil Association are that production is starting to rise again after the impact of Covid-19 on plantations. Output returns for June this year show crude palm oil (CPO) at 4.48 million tonnes, with palm kernel oil (PKO) on 426,000 tonnes. This leaves CPO+PKO production in 2021, up 4.3% on 2020. The most recent message issued by the Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB), meanwhile, is that the sector ‘remains resilient’ despite the country’s Covid-19 lockdown and protection measures. The government-backed MPOB also voiced its expectation that palm oil production in the country will increase ‘gradually and steadily over the next five to ten years’ with the Board even going so far as to outline its vision for production reaching 22 million tonnes by 2025, rising to 25 million tonnes by 2030. Everything ultimately depends on palm oil becoming sustainable and


deforestation-free, of course. If that goal can be achieved, there is clearly potential for the product to become a major feed sector player.


SUSTAINABILITY It’s not just palm oil producers who are being put under pressure to achieve sustainability. Maybe it’s a side-effect of Covid-19, but we all seem to have become a bit more aware of our fallibility this year, much more aware of how climate change is affecting the world, and considerably more intent on ensuring that we manage our food supplies more carefully than ever before. Playing into this space later this month is the second annual


Sustainable Animal Protein Production Summit which is taking place virtually on September 21 & 22 with the promise of bringing together ‘leaders from the protein production industry for two days of key networking opportunities’. Backed by Zoetis and Elanco, the event will have speakers from


Rabobank, Morrisons, Innovate UK, Ikea, and the 2 Sisters Food Group. They will be challenged to address how much sustainability pressure is being put on the animal protein production industry by the rise of alternative proteins and the fast-approaching climate change summit in Scotland The event slogan, if that’s the right word, reminds potential delegates


that ‘with one in five animals lost from production each year, improving the efficiency and productivity of protein production is essential for advancing the sustainability of the overall food system’. Scanning the programme for potential feed sector highlights, I suggest the following one-liners could be worth checking: a panel discussion to examine ‘why current fish meal is so


• • •


inefficient’, a session to look at how feed additives can improve cattle


health and help meet ‘your’ sustainability goals, brief presentations from 10 start-ups who specialise in


sustainable protein production and will get the chance to pitch to a panel of investing experts.


Also featured will be the latest innovations in feed additives,


designed to increase stock health and lower their output of methane emissions; a look at the importance of increased data and technology to support advancements in animal welfare, feed consumption, etc.; and a session on how sustainability issues are affecting consumer buying trends.


PAGE 20 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 FEED COMPOUNDER


FEED V FOOD Sustainability was also at the heart of the late-August ‘mixed crop / livestock systems’ debate held by the Animal Task force and the European Federation of Animal Science in Davos. The purpose of this event was to move beyond the traditional feed v food question to look instead at how crops and animals can come together to address food and nutrition requirements. The feed sector perspective on this was presented by Ruud


Tijssens, FEFAC Board member, who called on scientists, to develop the ‘One Nutrition’ concept, providing the industry with a scientific base for examining nutrition from a cooperative and complementary platform, rather than viewing the issue only in terms of competition. FEFAC, in a follow-up statement, added that the basic challenge


for the feed industry is to contribute to feeding the world responsibly, a task which requires industry players to create more human digestible protein than they use. It’s a simple enough point, isn’t it?


COP26 With just a few weeks to go until world leaders gather in Scotland for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), the spotlight being shone on the environmental impacts of global warming could not be greater. This includes the focus that is being directed toward the future of livestock production and the methane issues which are involved in that process. There will inevitably be a plentiful supply of claims and counter-


claims on the role methane plays in global warming as we approach the event itself, some of which will no doubt be less than scientific than others. On that basis, let’s finish with a few words on the entirely scientific trialling of a methane-linked seaweed supplement by Derbyshire dairy farmer, Jessica Langton. Like many other livestock farmers, and feed companies, she is highly focused on finding a solution to the methane issue, including it as part of an overall farm plan geared to improving production efficiencies and reducing the carbon footprint of her 140- acre holding. The seaweed trial she has joined is part of Project Ecologeco,


a programme being run at the University of Nottingham with the goal of reducing enteric fermentation in cattle and thereby lowering their methane emissions. The Ecologeco team is planning to introduce the supplement


into the diet of Jessica’s Holstein, Friesian, and Norwegian Red cows, with the hope of eliminating the enzymes that produce methane in the cows’ stomachs. While the make-up of the supplement is still subject to further research, the planned on-farm trial will show how effective it is in terms of proven methane reduction. Hopes are high, with previous research results already having established that the use of Asparagopsis Taxiformis (red seaweed) is technically able to reduce methane emissions by up to 99%. Hopefully, as the world’s leaders arrive in Glasgow on October 31,


they will look (from a farming/feed perspective, at least) at what producers and feed businesses are already doing to solve such problems and will be ready to back further research and development initiatives in the future. It is also to be hoped they will approach COP26 with a determination to implement a climate change agreement that for once will be worth the paper it’s written on.


Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd www.cfegroup.com


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