Durum wheat has potential as a feed grain, say researchers.
Shelley Meadows doesn’t often need to sell her durum as anything but
seed to other farmers. But when she and husband Kelvin do have a poor
weather year and substandard grain, “it has to go someplace and
livestock producers always need feed.”
Three years ago an early, wet damp fall followed a poor growing season.
Durum crops across southern Saskatchewan, including that of the
Meadows’ Moose Jaw area farm, failed to make the grade. A large surplus
Read Also
Powdery mildew can be combine fire risk
Dust from powdery mildew can cause fires in combines.
of poor quality durum entered the market that year as feed. The Meadows
found a local hog producer to take their grain. The price wasn’t
attractive, but holding on to poor durum was less so.
It has happened only once to the Meadows, but for several years in the
mid 1990s poor durum growing conditions had meant there was plenty of
low quality durum available and the price was poor.
At the same time, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan were
doing poultry feeding trials using various varieties and types of
spring wheat. The low cost of feed durum and its apparent surplus
prompted scientists to add it to their trials.
Durum surprised them. It topped the feeding trials for digestibility
and weight gain.
Wheat is generally not highly digestible for poultry. Its soluble fibre
tends to clog chickens’ digestive systems. It becomes a thick, viscous
mass that takes time and a lot of enzymes to break down into digestible
nutrients. It provides large amounts of energy because 60 to 70 percent
of the seed is starch, but moves too slowly through the birds’
intestines to be efficient.
But durum is different. Scientists suspect durum has a soluble fibre
that breaks down more readily in the bird gut than spring wheat, making
it a good poultry feed source.
After the initial discovery, trials over two years proved the
effectiveness of durum as a feed.
Hank Classen of the U of S worked on the study.
“It appears to be consistent over the genotype. All durums seem to have
this structure,” he said.
The study showed that Glenlea, an extra strong wheat, was more
digestible than Canada Prairie spring and hard red spring wheat.
While poor grade durum inventories are now small, durum as a high
quality feed source remains a prospect.
“We need more money to study it as a poultry feed. But for swine as
well,” Classen said.
Ruurd Zijlstra of the Prairie Swine Centre has included durum in a
current round of wheat feeding trials.
“Durum is often discounted by pig feeders. They won’t pay as much as
they would, say even for a hard red spring wheat. It may be better for
pigs. We don’t know yet, but we’re finding out so we can make some
recommendations (to producers).”
Classen said durum also has higher starch content than other kinds of
wheat and this provides greater energy, plus lower amounts of insoluble
fibre, which is important to swine and poultry rations.
“I’m not sure about cattle. They are different again and other factors
are involved there, but for pigs and chickens it should be excellent.”
Classen said digestive enzymes would still need to be fed along with
the ration, “but we have to do that anyway.”
He and his students have also found that durum is one of the most
efficient producers of “feed energy per hectare,” ranking just under
corn.
The Meadows family won’t likely be planting a crop with the intention
of selling it as feed anytime soon, “but it’s nice to know there are
some alternatives when the weather isn’t on your side.”
