REGINA – Shrimp crawling blind in a brackish pond in Thailand and Norwegian salmon cruising a few inches under the surface of a clear pool might soon be discovering the delights of extra-strong Canadian wheat.
Thai shrimp and Norwegian salmon are two promising future eaters of extra-strong wheat, according to Dave Hickling of the Canadian International Grains Institute.
Officials at the institute and Canadian Wheat Board both say extra-strong will be ideal for shrimp and salmon feeds and are conducting tests in Thailand and Norway now.
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Hickling said extra-strong is expensive, but attractive to feed producers because of its high gluten content.
“They (feed pellets) have to last four hours in the water before they start to fall apart,” he said. “It’s quite a challenge to make pellets that hold together that well. If you tried that with chicken feed or hog feed pellets it would fall apart in two minutes.”
Shrimp in Thailand are raised in ponds. Every few hours shrimpers scatter feed pellets across the ponds for the hungry crustaceans. Since shrimp are bottom feeders, the pellets must sink to the pond floor.
And because shrimp are almost blind and find their food by feeling for it with their tentacles, the pellets must last hours before they disintegrate. Shrimp feed makers have used wheat as a prime ingredient because its gluten is able to hold other nutrients together. Extra-strong contains a very high level of gluten, so it should be even better as a pellet binder, Hickling said.
The grains institute is working with two Thai companies. One, Charoen Pokthand, is the largest shrimp feed company in the world. One of its mills produces 180,000 tonnes of feed per year.
He said tests with extra-strong are not complete, but so far it appears to be as good as they expected.
The characteristics needed for good salmon feed are different. Salmon food is gobbled as it floats on the surface or slowly drifts down through the water.
Traps oil
Instead of binding nutrients into a heavy chunk of food, the gluten in extra-strong is used to trap air bubbles, making it light and full of oil for this type of feed.
Salmon feed contains up to 30 percent oil and “it’s a real challenge to get that oil in there and keep it in,” Hickling said.
A constant problem for salmon feed producers has been stopping oil from leaching out of the feed and that is why extra-strong wheat might become a major component of salmon feeds, he said.
Shrimp and salmon feeds will never be huge markets for Canadian extra-strong wheat, he said, but money can be made there.
“In terms of volume it’s not where the action is, but it’s a niche market that does favor Canadian grains.”
Salmon feed sells for about five times as much as other feeds. These applications of extra-strong wheat are helping find it a place in the world market, said Hickling.
