A £2.6 MILLION independent study has confirmed that British wheat distillers is a viable alternative to soya bean and rape seed meal, and can save dairy farmers money.
The four year study – "Environmental and nutritional benefits of bioethanol co-products" (ENBBIO) – was funded jointly by Defra and industry partners.
Richard Cross, Trident Feeds national general manager, said: "The results are a really exciting development for the UK feed industry, as British wheat distillers has the potential to reduce reliance on imported protein sources such as soya.
"The project’s aim was to investigate how domestic wheat distillers could compete with the protein market in Europe where 27 million tonnes of imported soya bean meal is used every year."
The feed, produced solely from British feed wheat, performed well in trials and proved to have consistent nutritional value and to be highly palatable.
Mr Cross said: "The domestically-produced product contains 32 per cent crude protein, is high in digestible fibre and low in starch. The ENBBIO study showed the ME of the British wheat distillers to be 13.4 MJ/kg dry matter, midway between that of barley and wheat, and 12 per cent more than rape seed meal, with marginally higher rumen by-pass protein than rape seed meal, albeit similar crude protein."
The inclusion of wheat distillers could also save producers money. As a quick rule of thumb, Mr Cross said the cost of 55 per cent soya and 45 per cent wheat – representing similar energy and total protein to wheat distillers – is greater than that of wheat distillers and producers had seen savings of up to 15p/cow/day.
Wheat distillers from Trident are a co-product of the Vivergo Fuels bio-refinery in Hull which is committed to producing around 400,000 tonnes of the domestically produced protein source throughout 2016.
Mr Cross said: "Trident is more confident than ever that it can provide farmers with a reliable source of protein, one that will be a cost-effective alternative to imported proteins such as soya and supports British agriculture."
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