The aim is to produce economically profitable feeding strategies with the ingredients produced organically and sourced within Europe rather than relying on protein imports and feed supplements of non-organic origin. The local 100% organic feeds must provide the required level of nutrients for different phases of production thus supporting high animal health and welfare, while being economically and environmentally sustainable. The project involves 15 partners across 10 countries in central and northern Europe.
This project is highlighted by the requirement to base the feeding of organic produced poultry and pigs on feed of 100% organic origin from the 1st January 2012. The aim is to produce economically profitable feeding strategies based on 100% organic feed across Europe, which will supply poultry and pigs the required level of nutrients in different phases of production and support high animal health and welfare.
This is done on the basis of the following tasks:
The role of FiBL is to assess the current availabilty and demand for feedstuffs as well as to assess current feeding practices in Europe.
The working hypothesis is that it is possible - through an extended knowledge of the characteristics of different local feeds and their wider impact on growth, health and welfare and environment - to produce strategies which comply with the aims for high animal welfare, production economy and environmental concerns. Through co-operation between 11 partners, a range of feeding experiments will be carried out with pigs (sows, piglets and finishers) and poultry (layers and broilers), clustered around concentrate feedstuffs, roughage, and foraging. The insight gained from these activities will be used to analyse and produce feeding strategies adapted to the differences in local feed supply, the economic impact related to different feed procurement, and variations in production structure in different countries/agroecological zones in Europe.
Partner
www.icopp.eu
