A new feed on the block

A new bulk feed co-product could soon be available to UK farmers, thanks to innovative R&D by several companies, including Kelvin Cave, a British engineering company and an international waste, water and energy giant. The result will be a nutritionally dense, moist livestock feed.

Using surplus ingredients to help build a circular economy is on many company agendas. But for resource management company Veolia, it is the essence of its business. This global company – headquartered in Paris and with several factory premises in the UK – is deeply committed to recycling food and water alongside generating energy from renewable sources.

The company has been using surplus supermarket bread and turning it into bulk animal feed – so-called ‘bread crumb’ – for many years. This feed has sufficient storage life to be a practicable option on UK farms.

But in line with the Courtauld Commitment, which sets out targets to cut food waste that many organisations internationally have committed to meet, the company seeks to expand its use of supermarket waste. Most recently, this has involved Veolia taking surplus fruit and vegetables and combining them with the bakery products it already uses, with the ambition of turning them into animal feed.

“We wanted to go straight to the experts and find a way of preserving these feeds and would rather use smaller quantities of a better product than apply high volumes,” says Matthew. Working with Dr Horst Auerbach from Germany’s International Silage Consultancy (ISC), the team at Kelvin Cave singled out the product CrimpSafe Hi-Dry as the most likely contender and set about trialling it on the fruit/veg/bread mix.

After a matter of days, the control batches (without any treatment) were spoilt and analysed to have high levels of spoilage bacteria as well as yeasts and moulds; their temperatures had also risen significantly, indicating severe microbial activity.

From the results, the team arrived at a recommended dose rate of CrimpSafe Hi-Dry which could be used in the factory setting, and installed a preservative applicator (a Silaspray) on the production line in Veolia’s Bolton factory. Software for the Silaspray was modified to communicate with the de-packaging machine and ensure a consistently accurate and even distribution of the preservative on the production line.

Meanwhile, engineers from Gloucestershire company Rowan Food and Biomass Engineering had redeveloped their food unpackaging line and developed extra functions to assist the more complex quality control required for the multiple-ingredient feed product.

The feed trialled by Kelvin Cave’s consultant in Germany was assessed using wet chemistry and found, on average, to have the above analysis.

All figures expressed in the dry matter.

The analysis suggests the feed will be particularly suitable for use in cattle total mixed rations (TMRs).