ABSTRACT

Climate change and predicted shortages of fossil fuels present major challenges. Currently, biofuel production is from agricultural crops grown primarily on arable land. Conflict with the traditional use of arable land, itself a limited resource, to produce food and animal feed must be avoided and economic sustainability assured. At present cereals, especially maize and wheat, and sugar cane are used for ethanol production, with soybean, oil palm and rapeseed for biodiesel production.

The expanding transport industry requires increasing amounts of biofuels, and an increasing market for co-products has generated a need for new feedstocks. Cellulosic material, often available from sub-prime land with minimal inputs, and other non-conventional sources are being investigated. Before being used as feeds, some seeds and cakes will require detoxification. The contribution of micro-algae, production of which can be achieved in coastal waters, is likely to grow in importance. These developments are mirrored the broadening of the animal species receiving the co-products, from ruminants, especially cattle, and pigs to poultry and fish (aquaculture). Further developments include enhancement of the use of existing co-products and the introduction of new ones.

This publication collates, discusses and summarizes state-of-the-art knowledge on the use as livestock feed and future availability of co-products from the biofuel industry. The levels at which the co-products could be safely used in livestock diets are also presented. Throughout the book, gaps in knowledge and research topics needed to address them have been identified. These include standardization of product quality to assist ration formulation; testing of new products; development of detoxification procedures; research on micro-algae; and life cycle analysis linked to traditional nutritional appraisal.

This publication covers a wide array of co-products and is a timely contribution, as people's aspirations are rising, evident from the increasing demand for livestock products and an ever greater reliance on transport, coupled with the challenge of maintaining agricultural production when faced with global warming. We hope that the information here synthesized will be useful to policy-makers, researchers, the feed industry, science managers and NGOs, supporting them in making information- based decisions on issues such as food-feed-fuel competition. Hopefully it will help confront the emerging challenges of global warming, in addition to making efficient use as livestock feed of a wide range of currently available and future co-products from the biofuel industry.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations used in the text

~ An outlook on world biofuel production and its implications for the animal feed industry

~ An outlook on EU biofuel production and its implications for the animal feed industry

~ Impact of United States biofuels co-products on the feed industry

~ Utilization of wet distillers grains in high-energy beef cattle diets based on processed grain

~ Utilization of feed co-products from wet or dry milling for beef cattle

~ Hydrogen sulphide: synthesis, physiological roles and pathology associated with feeding cattle maize co-products of the ethanol industry

~ Feeding biofuel co-products to dairy cattle

~ Utilization of crude glycerin in beef cattle 

~ Nutritional value and utilization of wheat dried distillers grain with solubles in pigs and poultry

~ Feeding biofuels co-products to pigs

~ Co-products from biofuel production for farm animals – an EU perspective

~ Utilizing co-products of the sweet sorghumbased biofuel industry as livestock feed in decentralized systems 

~ Utilization of oil palm co-products as feeds for livestock in Malaysia

~ Use of palm kernel cakes (Elaeis guineensis and Orbignya phalerata), co-products of the biofuel industry, in collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) feeds

~ Sustainable and competitive use as livestock feed of some co-products, by-products and effluents generated in the bio-ethanol industry

~ Scope for utilizing sugar cane bagasse as livestock feed – an Asian perspective

~ Camelina sativa in poultry diets: opportunities and challenges

~ Utilization of lipid co-products of the biofuel industry in livestock feed

~ Potential and constraints in utilizing co-products of the non-edible oils-based biodiesel industry – an overview

~ Status of biofuels in India and scope of utilizing castor (Ricinus communis) cake – a biofuel co-product – as livestock feed

~ Use of detoxified jatropha kernel meal and protein isolate in diets of farm animals

~ Use of Pongamia glabra (karanj) and Azadirachta indica (neem) seed cakes for feeding livestock

~ Co-products of the United States biofuels industry as alternative feed ingredients for aquaculture

~ Cultivation of micro-algae for lipids and hydrocarbons, and utilization of spent biomass for livestock feed and for bio-active constituents

~ Land use in Australia for biofuels and bio-energy: opportunities and challenges for livestock industries

~ An assessment of the potential demand for DDGS in Western Canada: institutional and market considerations

~ Biofuels: their co-products and water impacts in the context of life-cycle analysis

~ Utilization of co-products of the biofuel industry as livestock feeds – a synthesis

Appendix 1

Chapters and authors in this volume

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2012

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