Agriculture Business Week

A high-protein feed stuff showcased by a local distributor at the recent Agrilink trade show can be used to partially substitute soybean meal as an ingredient in animal feed ration. Called processed guar meal, it widely used in other countries and in India where it originated but was introduced to the country only few years ago.

Guar meal is one of the byproducts of the milling of guar gum, says Ana Liza Cuyugan of Centrovet Marketing, Inc., which markets imported processed guar meal under the product name Guarcol.

As a primary product of a fodder plant called guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), guar gum is extensively used as emulsifier, thickener, and stabilizer in food and oil industries. After the gum is extracted, guar meal is processed by toasting the guar seeds at high temperature to remove the natural trypsin inhibitor, thus enhancing its nutritive value and digestibility.

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Posted on May 29th, 2010 under Livestock, Poultry. Tags: Animal, Guar, Ration, Soybean. Comments: 3

Feed compounders and animal nutritionists should take a second, hard look at fish meal processing and utilization for animal feeds. The facts and figures are overwhelming: All fish species used for fish meal and fish oil in both the Pacific and the Atlantic are very important for the marine ecosystem, as they prey for fish, birds and mammals. Increased exploitation of these species to meet the demands from an expanding fish farm industry could very well turn out to be an ecological time bomb.

The November 10, 2008 editorial of The New York Times titled “The Protein Pyramid” is quite alarming, and must be borne in mind when using fish meal as an animal protein source in aquafeeds and monogastric rations. Here it is:

“Per capita meat consumption more than doubled over the past half-century as the global economy expanded. It is expected to double again by 2050. Which raises the question, what does all that meat eat before it becomes meat?

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Posted on March 6th, 2009 under Aquaculture, Livestock. Tags: Animal, Fish, Meat, Protein. Comments: None