Soya alternative sought for pigs

A research project has just started looking at creating a win-win situation for the British pig industry by cutting costs and lessening environmental impact.

The £1.5 million Green Pig project is investigating the potential of using home grown legumes in the diets of growing and finishing pigs.

The Defra-LINK project brings together plant breeders and growers, pig feed manufacturers, producers and industry organisations such as BPEX

BPEX pig technical manager Dr Pinder Gill said: "The aim is to find an home-grown feed as an alternative to soya which will closely match the needs of a pig.

"The benefits should be lower costs for producers and a better environment as this feed would not have to be transported anything like as far as soya."

The three-and-a-half year project has three academic partners Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), University of Nottingham and National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)).

There is also support from ten partners: Union Nationale Interprofessionelle des plantes riches en Proteins (UNIP), BOCM Pauls, Evonik/Degussa, Genesis QA, Harbro, Premier Nutrition, Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO), BPEX, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and the Soil Association. The overall project co-ordination rests with SAC and the project manager is Dr Jos Houdijk.