Angus Prius
Alternative feed and fuel that’s the subject of today’ Open Range or maybe it should be whether cattle are picky eaters? You be the judge, I’m Susan Allen inviting you to stay tuned after the break for the story. When corn prices soar so does the cost of feeding cattle and that means higher prices at the meat counter. The National Alliance for Advanced Biofuel and Bio-Products is supporting a research program that will be finalized in June to determine if algae can be used as an alternative cattle feed. Agrilife Research scientists and a graduate student from Texas A and M wanted to determine not only if algae could be used as a less expensive feed additive but if the cattle would even want to eat it in it’s powder form left over after the oil is extracted for other purposes. The team is hoping to be able to replace distiller’s grains and cottonseed meal, typical in feed mixes today with nutritious and less expensive algae. Like a new soft drink or snack when developing a different cattle feed a variety of components are taken into effect including , nutrition, taste, shelf life, packaging etc.. While nutritionally algae preformed better than cottonseed it does takes twice as much to meet protein needs. Still algae is very promising and in the end and if this research comes to fruition we could produce eco-friendly green cattle raised on a co-product from biofuel. Kind of an Angus Prius.
