By Becky Timmons, Alltech
With growing consumer demands, food scandals and health conscious trends across the world, many milk producers are looking for their key differentiator that makes their products tastier, healthier and most of all, unique. Is it possible to produce healthier milk products that are still profitable? Instead of searching on land, they may want to consider turning to the sea.
There are an estimated 800,000 species of algae that range from single celled
microorganisms, microalgae, to multi-celled organisms, such as the 200-foot long giant kelp. Algae produce carbohydrates, oils, protein, vitamins, pigments and organic materials. Since they are aquatic, algae grow much faster than land plants as they do not have to expend energy growing roots and support structures like trunks, leaves and stems.
Without the need for support, algae can triple or quadruple their biomass every day. While land plants only grow in one direction, algae can grow in all directions. This rapid growth means that one acre of algae can produce the same amount of protein in a year as 21 acres of soybeans or 49 acres of corn.
Most commercial production of microalgae is grown autotrophically in open outdoor circulating raceways or ponds. However, there are several
drawbacks with an open system, including:
- poor light diffusion;
- microbial, chemical and physical contamination;
- downstream processing; and,
- the growth of zooplankton and other species are all drawbacks of an open system.
The other commercial production method in growing algae is the heterotrophic system. The heterotrophic method maintains a closed, controlled system that provides a more consistent, traceable and pure algal product that is more beneficial for the feed industry.
These microalgae are also able to offer more nutritional benefits for consumers. Besides seeing an increase in immunity, a decrease in mortality and increased litter size in their herds, producers who utilize feeds with this type of algae will also be able to further brand their meat and dairy products as value-added DHA enriched for consumers. There is a two-fold contribution – producers can see the benefits of feeding algae to their animals, while consumers can enjoy an enriched product. This means improving return while creating a healthier population of both humans and animals simultaneously.
Beside the nutritional improvement that microalgae can bring to feeds and food, it is the only biomass material that allows production with daily harvest all year round. This could bring more security to an ever-changing feed market, and provide some options for dairy producers, especially when feed sources are hard to come
Editor’s Note: This commentary is sponsored by Alltech. Through 29 years of research-driven product development, Alltech has created a range of natural solutions for the feed and food industries. For more information, please visit the Web sites at www.alltech.com.
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