Here’s to welfare!

From seed to the trough: That’s how Andreas von Felde puts KWS’ value chain in a nutshell. “A few kilos of seed at the beginning are crucial in determining how sustainable for the environment, how healthy for the animal, and how economical for a farm livestock farming will ultimately be.”

Since October 2024, the six-strong Seed2FEED team at KWS has been working to provide answers. “We want to optimize the properties of all our varieties for use as fodder,” says team leader Andreas. The result should be that our Breeding and Sales teams know which plant traits can be used to improve animal welfare, sustainability and other positive qualities in livestock farming. Although a large proportion of the crops grown from KWS seed end up in the trough, there are still many aspects of animal nutrition that need to be refined. “There was no overarching structure for that until our team was launched.”

Experience from previous projects

However, the team does not have to start from scratch. The Business Unit Cereals has been working with external partners from academic research on rye in pig breeding for almost 10 years. The upshot is the 6R concept (see the insideKWS article “The super feed rye” ), which has demonstrated both the sustainability of rye for the environment and its positive effects on pig welfare.

Based on this concept and drawing on existing expertise, the Seed2FEED team is now pursuing a holistic approach in order to promote cross-crop dialogue between colleagues from the field of animal nutrition and supply them with concepts: Almost 30 animal nutrition experts are currently working in various countries to advise farmers – often with a focus on one specific crop. The members of the team – including animal nutrition consultants and a veterinarian – have also worked on this topic in their Business Units before.

The team is divided into three areas: cattle, pig and poultry farming. It engages in both internal and external dialogue: with stakeholders from the value chain such as dairies, slaughterhouses and feed mills, as well as with universities and associations involved in animal research and sustainability.

Findings from a survey

One of the first building blocks is the recently launched Trait Survey. “Among other things, we’re gathering information from the market about where we are doing well and where we can improve,” says Andreas. Basically, there will be at least three key areas of focus: Value-determining ingredients such as starch, oil content or protein must meet today’s requirements. It is also necessary to look at components such as fiber, which promote animal health and well-being. And supply chain bottlenecks have shown that vitamins and amino acids should also occur naturally in the varieties as far as possible so that they do not have to be chemically supplemented. The team hopes to obtain detailed information from the survey.

Andreas assumes that KWS already has a lot of suitable breeding material to continue breeding with a focus on animal nutrition in the future. It is now to be analyzed with that in mind. In addition, corn varieties are already being worked on and are to be tested in the coming years for their value to animals in terms of reduced methane emissions and increased milk yield. And last but not least, the emphasis in the medium to long term will be on developing further feeding systems such as the 6R concept. Because for Andreas, one thing is clear: “With the right feed composition, we can have a major impact on livestock farming and its sustainability.” |