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FFL-JA-Forskningsmidlene for jordbruk og matindustri

Forage preservation for premium protein quality (EngProt)

Alternative title: Konservering av grovfôr for utmerket proteinkvalitet

Awarded: NOK 10.0 mill.

Protein amounts 14-15% of dry matter in grass and grass protein constitutes the major part of ingested crude protein (CP) even in diets to high yielding cows. Grass is locally produced, and improved utilisation of grass protein reduces the need for imported protein supplement. In addition will high protein utilisation in grass allow a higher proportion of domestically produced grains in ruminant diets. Thus, the primary objective of the EngProt project is to improve the quality of protein from grassland and thereby increase utilisation of forage protein in ruminant diets, and to ensure usage of Norwegian grown grains. Main focus will be on cost-efficient production that sustain a high silage AAT value. Previous research has shown that wilting and/or application of additives that restrict fermentation and preserve water soluble carbohydrates, prevent proteolysis and improve silage AAT. The increased protein value is not well verified in production experiments. The ambition of the project is to verify this effect. The four main research areas are: (1) forage characteristic and restrictive silage fermentation, (2) response of restricted fermented silage on milk protein production, (3) rumen protein metabolism of restricted fermented silage and (4) evaluation of the project with respect to economic and environmental sustainability. The main audience is Norwegian farmers, including animal farmers producing grass silage and farmers producing grain for concentrate. If successful, the project will increase sustainability of Norwegian food production. Thus, in broad sense the targeted audience is Norwegian consumers of milk and meat. The project is a collaboration between the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Aarhus University (AU), Felleskjøpet Fôrutvikling (FKF), ADDCON EUROPE (ADDCON) and TINE (TINE). The project is lead by NMBU. The experimental activity has mainly been carried out as planned in spite of Covid-19. Small-scale silage experiments organized by NIBIO have been carried out in the summer of 2020 and 2021. A production experiment with dairy cows has been carried out in 2021 at Felleskjøpet's trial station, and a new one is planned to start in December 2022. In the summer of 2021, a field with pure stand of timothy was established at NMBU for use in experiments on dairy cows planned for the 2022/2023 season. At SLU Umeå, in vitro tests of samples from NIBIO and the dairy cow experiment at Felleskjøpet have been carried out. There are no results from the experimental activity yet, but writing of a scientific publication from the production experiment on dairy cow at Felleskjøpet has started.

The project proposal EngProt addresses the challenge of increasing the proportion of domestic and human-inedible protein sources in Norwegian ruminant diets. Presently, silages contribute the major part of the crude protein fraction, but their direct and indirect supply of amino acids that can be absorbed in the small intestine (AAT) is very variable. Cost-efficient measures in forage production that sustain a high silage AAT value will be sought developed in the project, and the basic idea is that highly controlled, restricted fermentation during preservation has a considerable potential in this regard. Previous research has confirmed that crop wilting and/or application of acid additives and salts restrict fermentation and preserve water soluble carbohydrates, prevent proteolysis and improve silage AAT. There are indications that both the fraction of rumen undegraded protein and microbial protein synthesis are affected in situ, but positive responses in milk production remain to be validated. These relationships will be investigated in digesta flow studies and production experiments with high yielding cows. Preservation experiments at laboratory scale will be conducted in order to define targeted fermentation patterns for different crops and to find the best options for controlling fermentation. The findings from the experiments will lastly be inputs to feed optimizing models prescribing diets at differing milk yields and then further analysed in a bio-economic linear programming model that establishes optimal farming systems and economic rewards of different silage productions regimes. The model also produces outputs that enable an investigation of constraints and environmental consequences of improved silage protein value in the Norwegian dairy milk production sector.

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FFL-JA-Forskningsmidlene for jordbruk og matindustri