United Kingdom
March 30, 2007
The University of Reading
is to investigate how feeding an ancient food to livestock could
be of huge benefit to the environment.
Ruminants, especially dairy cows, are major contributors to
environmental pollution, but by eating sainfoin, an almost
forgotten traditional fodder legume, the animals' polluting
emissions could be cut significantly.
Now the University of Reading's agriculture department, in
collaboration with other EU and Armenian colleagues, is part of
a new Marie Curie research training network called 'HealthyHay',
to investigate the benefits of feeding sainfoin to livestock.
Dr Irene Mueller-Harvey, who is leading the project at Reading,
said: "Ruminants utilise sainfoin protein very efficiently. They
also make better use of the energy in sainfoin compared to grass
of equal metabolisable energy content.
"This is important because more efficient nutrient utilisation
of protein and energy leads to less environmental pollution in
terms of nitrogen and methane emissions.
"HealthyHay takes a holistic approach to a unique sainfoin
(Onobrychis viciifolia) germplasm collection, and will develop a
scientific and technical basis for animal feeding systems based
on lower chemical inputs by re-popularising a traditional fodder
legume for more efficient, animal- and environment-friendly
farming systems.
"At present, research on sainfoin focuses only on a few
cultivars in a few EU countries. This prevents exploitation of
the full genetic potential of sainfoin. The unique collection
available within this network and a concerted effort to evaluate
this germplasm collection will lay the foundation for exploiting
the full potential of this traditional forage crop in
contemporary cultivation systems."
Sainfoin was widely grown in Europe before the use of commercial
fertilisers and synthetic veterinary drugs, and has a very high
voluntary intake by cattle, sheep and horses. It is thought that
the unique nutritional, environmental and veterinary properties
of sainfoin are governed by the presence of tannins, which are
natural products that occur only in a few fodder legumes.
The English term sainfoin is derived from the French 'sain
foin', which means 'healthy hay'. Research also suggests that
the sainfoin tannins achieve good anti-parasitic effects. This
could explain why it is such a good fodder for young livestock
such as lambs and calves.
As sainfoin contains nutrients, that are used more efficiently,
and natural compounds such as tannins, that act against
parasites, it is a fodder legume that is ideal for sustainable
livestock farming systems.
BACKGROUND
The University of Reading will be
working with National Institute of Agricultural Botany in
Cambridge who will be establishing the sainfoin germplasm
collection and Cotswold Seeds Ltd, who are providing their seeds
and also hay samples for the project. The partners, in full,
are:
1) Dr Irene Mueller-Harvey, Department of Agriculture,
University of Reading (plus colleagues: Professor Rainer Cramer,
Biocentre; Drs Rebecca Green, Richard Frazier and Wayne Hayes,
School of Chemistry, Food Biosciences and Pharmacy).
Role:
Characterisation of tannins from the sainfoin germplasm and how
tannins interact with proteins.
Nutritional analysis of sainfoin germplasm.
2) Mr Steven Bentley and Dr Lydia Smith, NIAB, Cambridge, UK
Role:
Agronomic evaluations of sainfoin germplasm Pre-breeding trials
3) Mr Ian Wilkinson, Cotswold Seeds Ltd, Moreton-in-Marsh,
Gloucestershire
Role:
Provision of seeds and plant material for feeding trials.
HealthyHay brings together 13 teams from 10 different countries:
Armenia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, France, Spain, Sweden, The
Netherlands, United Kingdom. It aims to train researchers with
less than four years of research experience. More experienced
researchers, with four-10 years of experience or a Ph.D. will
also be involved for the purpose of transferring knowledge
between partners and countries. HealthyHay will employ 14 ESRs
and six ERs. One of the main objectives of RTNs is to provide
training in another EU country that is different to the
researcher's usual country of residence. The aim is to increase
the mobility of EU researchers to support their future careers
in industry and academia.
The Marie Curie Research Networks:
These Networks provide the means for research teams of
recognised international stature to link up, in the context of a
well-defined collaborative research project, in order to
formulate and implement a structured training programme for
researchers in a particular field of research. Networks will
provide a cohesive, but flexible framework for the training and
professional development of researchers, especially in the early
stages of their research career. Networks also aim to achieve a
critical mass of qualified researchers, especially in areas that
are highly-specialised and/or fragmented; and to contribute to
overcoming institutional and disciplinary boundaries, notably
through the promotion of multidisciplinary research. They will
also provide a straightforward and effective means to involve
the less-favoured regions of the EU and Associated Candidate
Countries in internationally recognised European research
co-operation. |
|
