SUSTAINABILITY 82 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE September 2024 “Improving feed efficiency is a viable route to reducing emissions from ruminants and supporting the sustainability of livestock production. Forage plays an important part here; its unique ‘upcycling’ role allows for the use of resources that would not be consumed otherwise, thus reducing the competition for other energy sources, such as corn, wheat and barley.” Ruminant producers face a complex balancing act of meeting the global demand for animal protein products in a sustainable and profitable way. Over the next 25 years, around two times the amount of milk and meat that is currently produced will be necessary to meet human requirements. With this comes the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of livestock production. Livestock production is considered to generate significant amounts of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O); 40% of carbon emissions associated with livestock are due to enteric methane emissions, with ruminants the main contributors. As the carbon pledge for net zero by 2050 gets stronger, the scrutiny on ruminant production is intensified. While the industry is encouraged to develop solutions to lower enteric methane emissions, improved feed efficiency and overall dietary manipulation present a sustainable method of mitigation. A good place to start is by making the best use of forage. The selection, utilisation and supplementation of forages allows ruminants to transform non-human edible energy sources (which would otherwise not be consumed) into energy, which can, in turn, produce products for human consumption, such as meat and dairy. DETERMINING FORAGE QUALITY Forage is critical to promote rumen function and health in cattle; plant cell wall digestibility is often lower than 50%. With a proper characterisation and valorisation of the nutrients and digestible energy contained in forage, improvements can be made to forage utilisation efficiency and ration formulation, which contributes to better feed efficiency and cost. Portable near infrared (NIR) instruments are now used on farms to determine forage quality – with NIR analysis enabling nutritionists to quickly and accurately adjust formulation. As an example, AB Vista compared the quality of grass silage from the UK in 2021 and 2022. Figure 1 shows the lower metabolisable energy (ME) content as a percentage of dry matter (DM) and Figure 2 shows neutral detergent fibre (NDF) MAXIMISE FORAGE VALUE FOR BETTER SUSTAINABILITY AND PROFITABILITY Dr. Virginie Blanvillain Rivera Global Services Manager AB Vista
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