Enhancing Animal Nutrition Through Precise Technologies

In a business environment, the phrase “doing more with less” often refers to creating production efficiencies that lead to greater output, which reduces costs and impacts on the environment – a win-win situation. Like many industries, animal agriculture is no different. The less feed producers need to raise animals, the more money they have available to invest back into their farms, while lowering their environmental impact and still meeting consumers’ dietary needs.

The American Feed Industry Association promotes scientific research that fosters innovation in agriculture as one of its core values because we know that modern technology and processes - coupled with improvements in animal breeding, genetics and animal husbandry - leads to more people having access to safe, affordable and nutritious meat, milk, egg and aquaculture products. We also know that by focusing on improving animal nutrition with better quality ingredients - the AFIA’s fourth sustainability pillar - that we can reduce waste, conserve natural resources and save consumers money.

For example, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, one of the AFIA’s partners, recently shared data that chickens in the 1965 used 58% more water, 72% more land, 39% more fossil fuels and produced 36% more greenhouse gas emissions than today’s broilers. When comparing pork production from 1960 to 2015, pigs require 25.1% less water, 75.9% less land and 7% less energy and have a 7.7% less carbon footprint. And since 1977, beef cattle have required 12% less water, 33% less land and 19% less feed and have a 16% reduction in carbon footprint. Since 1944 to 2007 dairy production has a 65% less water use, 90% less land use and 77% less feed.

The AFIA works on a number of projects to enhance animal nutrition through precise technologies, a better understanding of ingredients, and the use of new ingredients in feed and pet food. Below are a few recent examples of this work.

Improving Feed Formulas Through Nutrition Research

In recent years, through organizations such as the Institute for Feed Education and Research, the AFIA has supported research projects aimed at learning more about how different species digest various feed ingredients. The recent project, completed in the fall of 2018, assessed how well dairy cattle digest essential amino acids in seven common feed ingredients (corn silage, grass hay, alfalfa hay, soybean hulls, dried distillers’ grains with solubles, brewers’ grains and corn). As dairy nutritionists move away from formulating diets based on crude or metabolizable protein in favor of ones that meet specific amino acid requirements, this research will help them better tailor the dietary needs of the dairy cattle they are serving, while reducing the amount of nitrogen that is excreted into the environment.

Using Data to Select Feed Ingredients with Lower Carbon Footprints

Another project the AFIA has been involved in is working with U.S. animal food manufacturers to collect data on the emissions generated by various feed ingredients throughout their life-cycles. This “gold standard” tool will assist animal food manufacturers in assessing and benchmarking their environmental impact, providing producers the information they need to select ingredients that will help them achieve their sustainability goals.

The AFIA launched the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) project in 2016 in partnership with the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC), the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada and the International Feed Industry Federation. Since then, many AFIA members have been providing input into the database, using the methodology created under the Livestock Environmental Assessment Performance (LEAP) Project. The database is expected to be made publicly available in 2021.

In the future, the AFIA will be involved in developing a similar database for measuring the environmental impact of feed additives.