Petra Fant has been granted funding for a project aimed at improving the resilience and sustainability of livestock production, with a focus on dairy cows. The project, which seeks to address the challenges posed by climate change and extreme weather, could play a key role in the future of food security.
The background of the project lies in the ability of ruminants, particularly dairy cows, to convert grass into valuable protein in the form of milk and meat. Their diet primarily consists of various types of grasses but also requires grains and protein feeds such as soy and rapeseed. However, the ongoing climate change makes soy and rapeseed harvests increasingly uncertain. The newly funded research, therefore, explores an innovative solution: duckweed, a fast-growing aquatic plant with a high protein content that thrives in nutrient-rich waters in Sweden. Duckweed can be cultivated without occupying land and is less vulnerable to extreme weather conditions compared to traditional crops, making it a potential sustainable alternative in animal feed.
The project is divided into three phases. In the first phase, duckweed will be collected from various Swedish habitats and cultivated using wastewater from a dairy and manure from a dairy farm to evaluate the impact of different growing environments on the plant’s protein quality and digestibility for ruminants. In the second phase, duckweed will be incorporated into a typical dairy cow diet and examined in a controlled laboratory trial. The third part of the project consists of practical feeding trials where dairy cows are fed a diet in which soy and rapeseed meal are replaced with duckweed. The effects on milk yield, milk quality, animal health, and emissions of ammonia and methane will then be measured.
This research initiative could pave the way for more sustainable and resilient livestock production, which is crucial in a world where climate change is creating increasing uncertainty around food supply.