UK research projects measure nutritional value of grain and oilseeds

Three new United Kingdom Home Grown Cereals Authority research projects worth a collaborative £1.5 million will investigate better ways to measure the nutritional value of grain and oilseeds. The authority is contributing £650,000 to the research, which aims to benefit growers and feed processors by examining the effects of feed quality on animal performance and developing quicker tests for nutritional quality.

Three new United Kingdom Home Grown Cereals Authority research projects worth a collaborative £1.5 million will investigate better ways to measure the nutritional value of grain and oilseeds. The authority is contributing £650,000 to the research, which aims to benefit growers and feed processors by examining the effects of feed quality on animal performance and developing quicker tests for nutritional quality. Additional funding has been secured from government and industry sources. 

Dr. Martin Grantley-Smith, head of business development for the Home Grown Cereals Authority, said, "HGCA is investing in this suite of projects to help ensure grain of certain quality goes to the most suitable end use. This will cut down on waste for the benefit of the whole supply chain.

"We are also aware that imported soya-meal may become less attractive for feed because of price and availability. By exploring the potential to increase the use of alternative cereals and oilseeds-based nutrition in rations, this could provide a big opportunity for growers, as well as the pig and poultry supply chain."

Two projects will look at how higher levels of rapeseed meal could be included in pig and poultry feed without compromising tight feed specifications or animal performance.

The group has awarded the Scotland Royal College, the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology and the University of Nottingham £325,000 to work out optimum levels of rapeseed meal in feed. This complements an £850,000 project to develop fast tools to establish the nutritive quality of rapeseed meal and predict heavy metal and mycotoxin levels in dried distillers grains with solubles offered to pigs and poultry in the UK, using near infrared spectroscopy and similar techniques. The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Northern Ireland will lead the project alongside a number of research and industry partners.

Wheat for broiler chickens is the focus of the final project, which looks at using near infrared spectroscopy to predict the nutritional value of wheat. In response to concerns raised during the 2012 harvest, the project is also investigating how moisture, Fusarium and Microdochium levels in wheat affect broiler performance. The Home Grown Cereals Authority is contributing £123,000 out of a total of £353,000 to the project, which is also led by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute.

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