OK-Net EcoFeed: Organic Knowledge Network for Monogastric Animal Feed

Summary

When feeding organic farm animals, the goal is to offer balanced diets that are fully organic and from home-grown or regionally-sourced feedstuffs. For monogastrics, pigs and poultry, updated European legislation will come into force in 2021 which will require that “at least 30% of the feed shall come from the farm itself or, if this is not feasible or such feed is not available, shall be produced in cooperation with other organic or in-conversion production units and feed operators using feed and feed material from the same region.” (Regulation EU, 2018). Achieving diets containing 100% organic feed for monogastrics is problematic, and current EU Regulations acknowledge this difficulty by allowing the use of 5% non-organic feed. However, this will cease when the updated legislation comes into force. Senior Livestock Researcher Lindsay Whistancereports on progress being made by the OK-Net EcoFeed project to address the issues.