SLU and Naturbruksförvaltningen have carried out feeding trials with cows, heifers, growing pigs and sows at the Sötåsen Farm School. Silage was pressed in the biorefinery, and the fibre pulp was fed to cows and heifers and the press juice replaced part of the feed for pigs.
The control group in the trials received silage and concentrate feed and in the pig trials concentrate feed and water were used for wet feeding. Neither pregnant sows nor growing pigs was fed press juice, instead of a less portion of concentrate feed and water, showed any differences in weight or carcass change compared to the control group, suggesting that the pigs were able to assimilate the nutrients in the pressed juice (Presto, M. et al 2022). The studies in which the fibre pulp completely replaced silage in the diet of cows showed no differences in weight.
However, dairy cows produced slightly less milk after a period of time in the group receiving fibre pulp, indicating that cows can absorb the nutrients in fibre pulp and that fibre pulp needs to be mixed in a smaller amount with silage to avoid production reduction (Sousa, D. et al 2022). In contrast, heifers fed fibre pulp grew as well as heifers fed silage when they received slightly more concentrate than the silage group.
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Materials from the trials
Here you’ll find all the documentation and images from this trial.
