Organic Knowledge Network on Monogastric Animal Feed

Project Aims:

The project aims to help farmers, breeders and the organic feed processing industry achieve the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed for monogastrics; in particular pigs, broilers, laying hens and parents of broilers and laying hens. It aims to close the research and innovation divide in this area by summarising, sharing and presenting best practice, and communicating relevant research that is not widely known by practitioners.

Project outcomes will include factsheets, videos and ration-planning tools (lack of nutritional information has been identified as a major knowledge gap by end-users). All will be disseminated through the OK-Net Knowledge Platform (farmknowledge.org), that has the ambition to be the central hub for practice-oriented knowledge on organic farming in Europe, as well as through practice abstracts to be uploaded onto the EIP-AGRI website.

ORC's Role:

ORC will coordinate the Innovation and Thematic Groups. OK-Net EcoFeed will work with 11 Innovation Groups (IG) across the EU, facilitating cross-border knowledge exchange through the implementation of Thematic Groups (TG), for pigs, broilers and laying hens. OK-Net EcoFeed will work in a bottom up way, to identify agricultural and feed processing practice, innovative ideas and practices to inform the subsequent work of the project. The project will use a ‘Science Bazaar’ approach, to identify the most urgent knowledge needs to focus on. The TGs will identify cross-sectoral issues and synergies.

Current progress highlights:

Lindsay Whistance reports on progress being made by the OK-Net EcoFeed project in ORC Bulletin 128: OK-Net EcoFeed: Organic Knowledge Network for Monogastric Animal Feed Summer 2019.

Project leader and partners:

1. INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE MOVEMENTS EUROPEAN UNION REGIONAL GROUP (IFOAM EU GROUP) Sweden
2. AARHUS UNIVERSITET (AU) Denmark
3. PROGRESSIVE FARMING TRUST LTD (ORC) UK
4. INSTITUT TECHNIQUE DE L AGRICULTURE BIOLOGIQUE (ITAB) France
5. FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FUR BIOLOGISCHEN LANDBAU STIFTUNG (FiBL) Switzerland
6. BIOLAND BERATUNG GMBH BBG Germany
7. ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA PER L AGRICOLTURA BIOLOGICA (AIAB) Italy
8. DONAU SOJA GEMEINNUTZIGE GESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG (DS Austria) Austria
9. SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET (SLU) Sweden
10. VALOR ECOLOGICO CAAE (ECOVALIA) Spain
11. THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LTD (SA) UK

Previous Relevant Work:

• Improved contribution of local feed to support 100% organic feed supply to pigs and poultry (ICOPP)
• Sustainable Organic and Low Input Dairying (SOLID)
• OK-NET Arable

All sources of funding:

The project received funding under agreement No. 773911 from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.