Multi-nutrient block answer for livestock during drought

Judith Phiri, Business Reporter

THE world over, drought affects both humans and animals. The lack of food and drinking water for animals results in numerous poverty deaths, which negatively affects farmers.

As was witnessed last year, livestock poverty deaths were recorded in most parts of the country due to limited access to water and pasture. Zimbabwe battled the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which resulted in erratic rainfall patterns across southern Africa, leading to widespread crop failures and acute water shortages.

As a way of finding solutions for livestock during the drought in the face of abrupt climate change, which has resulted in long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, the Matopos Research Institute recently developed an innovation through the use of insects as an alternative protein source (mealworms).

As the demand for animal feed continues to rise, more research is being carried out to find alternative feed due to limited availability of natural resources, continued climate change and food-feed-fuel competition.

The specialised institute last year in September took a team from the World Bank Group on a familiarisation tour to gain an appreciation of the innovation.

The growing global need for alternative and sustainable protein sources has warranted research in the field of unconventional foodstuffs such as insect-based diets/feeds.

Matopos Research Institute Livestock nutrition research officer, Mr Maphious Mpofu said they executed a research on the key component of replacing blood meal in the diets of broilers so that insects can be utilised as animal protein sources in poultry.

He said they concluded that the mealworm could successfully be utilised as an alternative protein source for both fish and poultry diets.

Giving an update since the last visit, Mr Mpofu said: “So far, the mealworm starter, grower and finisher diets were registered as feed for poultry in Zimbabwe under Farm Feeds. For broilers that have been given the three-phased diets, results from the meat sensory evaluations show that their meat is tastier compared to those fed using the commercial diets.”

He said they are onto another ground-breaking innovation and have developed a multi-nutrient block for ruminant animals.

Mr Mpofu said they were running trials on sheep giving them different diets to see which one best suited the animals and resulted in faster growth in a short period of time.

“We harvest the mealworms at six weeks when they are now ready for consumption by poultry. By that stage, they will release some frass, which we are now using to mould the blocks to feed ruminant animals,” he said.

“We are currently doing a trial with the ewe lambs, which are the females of the Sabi indigenous breed that is kept all over the country. The frass used for the blocks is the waste product of mealworms or any insects and it is rich in protein and contains up to 21 percent protein.”

Mr Mpofu said the multi-nutrient blocks made from frass were highly recommended for ruminant animals feeding particularly in dry seasons when the rangelands decrease in terms of protein, energy, minerals and vitamins.

He said the frass becomes the main protein source in the block and it can be reinforced with other sources of nutrients to make one block that can supply proteins and other nutrients.

“So, for this trial, we are comparing different feed supplement methods for livestock. We are using urea-treated hay, urea-treated sorghum stover and a frass block, which is made from insects waste. We want to compare the growth rate of these ewe lambs, the feed conversion ratio and feed intake,” explained Mr Mpofu.

“At the end of the trial, we will compare which feed will result in the earlier estrous cycle of a lamb. We started the trial on May 14 and our major intention is to assess the growth performance of the Sabi breed ewe lambs. We ran the two weeks acclimatisation period whereby they were consuming those urea-treated diets and we did not face any challenges.

So, after two weeks by June 1, we started to implement the true trial where we collected daily feed and water intake to compare the performance of those lambs with different diets.”

Mr Mpofu said the lambs came into trial at six months old and they would compare their performance up to September.

He said so far, the results have shown that the lambs that started off at around 20 kilogrammes (kg) live weight, are now at 26kg after weeks of licking the multi-nutrient block.

“What we are observing is that feed formulation based on several protein sources can be used to improve our animal performance. The international feed industry has already mentioned that due to our climate change and population increase, protein sources that we are currently using in the feed formulation industry are not enough to be used in the future,” he said.

“The best way is to identify several protein sources that can be used to formulate feed and substitute all the protein sources that are being used in these industries for us to continue producing meat to feed nations in the near future. Insects and other tree species that are edible are now becoming major feed sources for livestock during the drought.”
Mr Mpofu said seeing that frass contains a high level of protein, they are also working on developing a frass-based fertiliser.

He said they were also doing trials of using it as fertiliser in different soils in the rural areas where there are challenges to reduce the soil potential of hydrogen (pH) and fix nitrogen in the soil.

Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of soil and it is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitatively and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics.

Soil pH influences both the availability of soil nutrients to plants and how the nutrients react with each other. For example: At a low pH, many elements become less available to plants, while others such as iron, aluminium and manganese become toxic to plants.

Meanwhile, World Bank lead agriculture economist and task team leader, Dr Dorte Verner, said insect farming could create a circular food economy by re-using society’s organic waste, including agricultural and certain industrial waste, to produce foods for humans, fish and livestock without the need for vast amounts of arable land or water resources.

“As World Bank, we are working with different partners to produce insects for food, feed and fertilisers and we are working mainly on black soldier flies and a bit on mealworms,” she said.

“In Zimbabwe, we are working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at Tongogara Refugee Camp for insect farming, we already have a strong collaboration with the Zimbabwean Government.”
Dr Verner said insect farming requires little space, unlike other animal production systems, while small-scale insect farms can be housed in homes or small shelters.

Scientific researcher of the Industrial insect and sericulture division at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences of South Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA), Dr Kwanho Park said in their country, the number of companies raising or processing insects for food, pets and other purposes continues to rise and they were also exporting to other countries on the globe.

He said if done properly, there is a lot of potential in insect farming and there was a need to apply smart technologies to improve their productivity.

According to All About Feed, a multimedia brand on the latest developments in animal nutrition, diet formulation and feed processing equipment, more than 1.5 billion Euros has already been invested in European Union insect-producing companies, which has contributed to the creation of thousands of green jobs in rural areas.

The sector employs more than 3 500 people, with at least 1 000 of whom are directly employed by insect-producing companies, according to the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (Ipiff) Second vice-president, Mr Antonine Hubert.

Insect farming has become the fastest-growing sustainable protein production sector in the EU, among other emerging industries, taking into account the number of production facilities that have been built over the last decade.