A key challenge in improving the sustainability of organic monogastric production is meeting the required levels of nutrients from locally sourced organic feeds. From 2018 on, a 100% organic diet will be compulsory to meet the requirements by the EU Organic Regulatory Board. There is concern that an organic diet may not supply sufficient sources of certain essential amino acids (methionine and lysine), and there is very little information on the implications of such a shift in feeding strategy.
Therefore, the aim of the project was to produce economically profitable feeding strategies based on 100% organic feed across Europe, which will supply poultry and pigs with the required level of nutrients in different phases of production and support high animal health and welfare. A desk study on organic feed availability and demand in Europe as well as a range of feeding experiments were carried out with pigs (sows, piglets and finishers) and poultry (layers and broilers), clustered around concentrate feedstuffs, roughage, and foraging.
Organic feed availability and demand in Europe possible feeding strategies:
In order to evaluate the availability of feeds across Europe, existing literature and relevant statistical data on organic feed was compiled. The analysis shows a self-sufficiency of concentrated organic feedstuffs of 68% in the ICOPP countries. Looking at the individual amino acids, there is in particular a lack of methionine with a self-sufficiency of 40% against a self-sufficiency of total protein of 56%. Thus, demand for organic feedstuffs highly exceeds supply, and it is unlikely that the ICOPP countries will be able to cover the organic protein demand with their own efforts and increase production in the foreseeable future unless major shifts in production take place.
Feed evaluation of organically produced feedstuffs: All partners contributed to a list of possibly useful feed ingredients to be used in the feeding experiments which were analyzed for chemical composition and digestibility by the same lab to guarantee comparability. The results are available online.
Feeding experiments
Concentrates: A variety of locally available concentrated feed stuffs such as unprocessed seeds of grass pea and sainfoin, black soldier fly larvae, mussel meal and algae of organic origin were tested to determine if they can supply proteins in sufficient quantities. It was found that the mentioned feedstuffs could partially replace current protein sources. For poultry, it was found that protein from organically produced Spirulina algae can even fully replace other protein in broiler diets. Refining of ingredients of plant origin enriching the relative content of methionine seems to be a useful way to supply relevant protein sources for poultry.
Roughage: The experiments confirmed that silage makes methionine available for the poultry and thus can contribute significantly to cover their nutritional needs.
Foraging in the range: Of all the invertebrates studied, earthworms present the most potential in contributing to the nutritional needs of poultry in particular, while having only a minor contribution to pig nutritional needs. One m2 of most habitats studied would contribute considerably to the daily requirements of laying hens for methionine, and in most cases, completely meet lysine requirements as well.
Feeding strategies
The main problem is the lack of organic feed stuffs in Europe relatively to the demand both in terms of energy and protein in concentrated feedstuffs which are essential in the present feeding of monogastrics. Therefore, more emphasis should be put on crops that are suitable in organic farming and which have a high yield per ha of feed energy, protein and the relevant amino acids. Legume forages like lucerne are suitable, and if harvested at an early stage of development they can yield a significant contribution to cover the protein requirements of the monogastrics, while at the same time supporting animal health and welfare.
In order to achieve the full potential of basing the feed more on forage crops there is need to investigate possibilities to separate the easy digestible and protein rich part of the forage legumes to be used as the relevant protein source in the stages of life where it is most difficult to comply with the nutrient requirements and where the digestive system is less developed.
