A new project in UCC is turning slurry waste water into an animal feed which could replace soya beans in cattle feed.
Professor Marcel Jansen is leading the project, called Brainwaves, which has just been granted €1.4m in funding under the Ireland Wales 2014-2020 European Territorial Co-operation (ETC) programme.
In a nutshell, the duckweed plant is used to take up the nutrients in the waste water of slurry and the plant can then be harvested for feed.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal Prof Jansen said that duckweed is widespread all over Ireland.
Duckweed is an aquatic plant.
“It is actually one almost for the Guinness book of records, because it’s the fastest growing plant that we know.
“It grows very fast on let’s say contaminated water, it takes up the nutrients in it – the nitrogen, the phosphorus, which it needs that to grow.
“On the one hand that’s cleaning up the water and on the other hand you generate a lot of that duckweed. That’s the special thing about that plant, it is actually a very good material for feeding to cattle, for instance, or to animals in general. So there are two benefits, cleaning up the water and generating that biomass,” he said.
Listen to "Turning slurry waste water into animal feed" on Spreaker.
Prof Jansen and his team are working with Bord Iascaigh Mhara on a 1.2ha fish farm near the Edenderry power station on land supplied by Bord na Móna.
The fish are producing waste water, which goes through the duckweed channels and Prof Jansen says that last year that generated about 30t of dry matter with some 10t of that being protein.
“The other thing about it, is it’s not just protein, it’s the right amino acids. All farmers will know you can’t just feed cereals to cattle, there’s not enough lysine in that. This plant has a lot of lysine in it,” he said.
Replacement for soya beans
Prof Jansen said that duckweed could replace soya beans on Irish farms.
“You can’t just use soya bean [by itself], because there’s not enough methionine in that. This plant has a lot of methionine in it, actually its amino acids profile is one of the best for feed. So we have that growing, in the wild, in Ireland, quite spontaneously and quite fast.
“What this project is about is learning how to grow the stuff on waste water and clean up that waste water and generate something that is really valuable as a potential replacement to soya beans,” he said.
The way the project team sees duckweed being used is mostly as a feed component – it wouldn’t be used as 100% of feed.
“We see it as a component, like many feed products that are made of multiple products,” he said.
How would this work on a farm?
So how is duckweed harvested and how would it work on a farm?
Prof Jansen told the Irish Farmers Journal there are two different approaches – an indoor system and an on-farm system.
With an indoor system, the duckweed grows on a number of layered surfaces and the water flows through that.
“We would see that being used by the dairy processing industry for instance. After making cheese you end up with that waste water which is still very high in nutrients. The dairy processing industry has the technical skills to run such systems. They of course have their own waste water treatment plans already, so this is meant to fit in.
The other approach is a low-cost method in order for duckweed to be grown on farms.
“The slurry is far too valuable, we’re not going to touch the slurry. What we’re talking about is potentially the thin fraction of the slurry, the much more diluted stuff and there’s also an element of the farmyard's dirty water.
“It could be even stuff from cattle marts, after the mart has washed off a lot of the water. We’re looking at those diluted types of waste water that farmers have, they need to store, need to do something with it,” he said.
“What we hope to achieve at the end is a series of demonstration set-ups, probably at a number of farms, mostly in the southern half of Ireland where farmers can go and see how it works."
Savings
When asked if the project will save farmers money in the long-term, Prof Jansen said he believes it will.
“On many farms you see there are small patches of land which is too wet, it’s not good for anything. These small patches would be ideal to have systems like this in place.
“What do you get back if you clean waste water? In this scenario, you get duckweed biomass and you are going to save money on buying soya in the winter. I think it will become economically viable, though it will depend on the specific circumstances of the farm of course and local growth conditions for duckweed.
“But in principle the idea is that this is beneficial for the farm, but is also very efficient for the environment. I think that’s worth a lot as well.”
Read more
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A new project in UCC is turning slurry waste water into an animal feed which could replace soya beans in cattle feed.
Professor Marcel Jansen is leading the project, called Brainwaves, which has just been granted €1.4m in funding under the Ireland Wales 2014-2020 European Territorial Co-operation (ETC) programme.
In a nutshell, the duckweed plant is used to take up the nutrients in the waste water of slurry and the plant can then be harvested for feed.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal Prof Jansen said that duckweed is widespread all over Ireland.
Duckweed is an aquatic plant.
“It is actually one almost for the Guinness book of records, because it’s the fastest growing plant that we know.
“It grows very fast on let’s say contaminated water, it takes up the nutrients in it – the nitrogen, the phosphorus, which it needs that to grow.
“On the one hand that’s cleaning up the water and on the other hand you generate a lot of that duckweed. That’s the special thing about that plant, it is actually a very good material for feeding to cattle, for instance, or to animals in general. So there are two benefits, cleaning up the water and generating that biomass,” he said.
Listen to "Turning slurry waste water into animal feed" on Spreaker.
Prof Jansen and his team are working with Bord Iascaigh Mhara on a 1.2ha fish farm near the Edenderry power station on land supplied by Bord na Móna.
The fish are producing waste water, which goes through the duckweed channels and Prof Jansen says that last year that generated about 30t of dry matter with some 10t of that being protein.
“The other thing about it, is it’s not just protein, it’s the right amino acids. All farmers will know you can’t just feed cereals to cattle, there’s not enough lysine in that. This plant has a lot of lysine in it,” he said.
Replacement for soya beans
Prof Jansen said that duckweed could replace soya beans on Irish farms.
“You can’t just use soya bean [by itself], because there’s not enough methionine in that. This plant has a lot of methionine in it, actually its amino acids profile is one of the best for feed. So we have that growing, in the wild, in Ireland, quite spontaneously and quite fast.
“What this project is about is learning how to grow the stuff on waste water and clean up that waste water and generate something that is really valuable as a potential replacement to soya beans,” he said.
The way the project team sees duckweed being used is mostly as a feed component – it wouldn’t be used as 100% of feed.
“We see it as a component, like many feed products that are made of multiple products,” he said.
How would this work on a farm?
So how is duckweed harvested and how would it work on a farm?
Prof Jansen told the Irish Farmers Journal there are two different approaches – an indoor system and an on-farm system.
With an indoor system, the duckweed grows on a number of layered surfaces and the water flows through that.
“We would see that being used by the dairy processing industry for instance. After making cheese you end up with that waste water which is still very high in nutrients. The dairy processing industry has the technical skills to run such systems. They of course have their own waste water treatment plans already, so this is meant to fit in.
The other approach is a low-cost method in order for duckweed to be grown on farms.
“The slurry is far too valuable, we’re not going to touch the slurry. What we’re talking about is potentially the thin fraction of the slurry, the much more diluted stuff and there’s also an element of the farmyard's dirty water.
“It could be even stuff from cattle marts, after the mart has washed off a lot of the water. We’re looking at those diluted types of waste water that farmers have, they need to store, need to do something with it,” he said.
“What we hope to achieve at the end is a series of demonstration set-ups, probably at a number of farms, mostly in the southern half of Ireland where farmers can go and see how it works."
Savings
When asked if the project will save farmers money in the long-term, Prof Jansen said he believes it will.
“On many farms you see there are small patches of land which is too wet, it’s not good for anything. These small patches would be ideal to have systems like this in place.
“What do you get back if you clean waste water? In this scenario, you get duckweed biomass and you are going to save money on buying soya in the winter. I think it will become economically viable, though it will depend on the specific circumstances of the farm of course and local growth conditions for duckweed.
“But in principle the idea is that this is beneficial for the farm, but is also very efficient for the environment. I think that’s worth a lot as well.”
Read more
In pictures: Tyrone farmers help extinguish gorse fire
Grass+: when to take out surplus grass
Slurry spreading in the COVID-19 era
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