What Is Hemp Seed Cake

| Apr 16, 2021

kostrez | Bigstock.com

Data from hemp seed block safety study points to possible egg quality benefits in layers

Current research points to potential benefits for the utilize of hemp seed block in laying hen diets, but applications in other livestock species remain less articulate, researchers said during a panel assembled by the Hemp Feed Coalition.

With an awarding for the approval of hemp seed cake and meal in laying hen diets under review by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Hemp Feed Coalition has turned its attention toward possible commercial uses of this and other hemp-derived feed ingredients. Enquiry on the utilise of hemp in animal feed remains sparse, but three experts who spoke to the Hemp Feed Coalition's Facebook audition concluding month said existing studies point to hemp'due south promise as a feed ingredient.

Layers, in item, may stand to do good from diets containing hemp seed, according to Raj Kasula, vice president and chief nutrition officer for The Wenger Group and ane of the researchers who worked on the safe and efficacy trials behind the Hemp Feed Coalition'due south ingredient application.

The trials, Kasula said, evaluated multiple central performance metrics in 800 laying hens fed diets containing upward to thirty% hemp seed block. Overall, he said, the bear upon on performance compared with conventional diets was negligible, though the hens fed hemp seed cake gained slightly more weight.

However, the study pointed to "meaning improvements in egg quality parameters," Kasula said. Eggs from the hens fed hemp seed cake contained more omega 3, and generally had a more favorable fatty acid composition. They as well independent more lutein, Kasula said.

Nutritionally, hemp seed cake has more phosphorus and a good mineral content, but wasn't necessarily a direct replacement for soybean meal, Kasula said. But overall, he said, he believes hemp seed cake has "bully potential equally a feed ingredient."

Contempo trials in ruminants have produced more mixed results, according to Massimo Bionaz, an acquaintance professor of dairy nutrigenomics at Oregon State University. The vast majority of hemp produced in the U.Southward. today is grown for the production of cannabidiol (CBD) oil, which means the industry produces large quantities of spent biomass that could be used as an brute feed ingredient.

This spent biomass has a similar poly peptide and fiber content equally alfalfa hay, Bionaz said, but the nutritional content of the spent hemp biomass varies widely from 1 batch to the next, depending on the extraction process used. Spent hemp biomass besides contains balance cannabinoids, which could be exist considered a contaminant, depending on how regulatory decisions unfold.

One contempo study also suggests spent hemp biomass may not bear witness popular among ruminants, Bionaz said. In the trial, five groups of finishing lambs were fed diets containing alfalfa, hemp or a combination of both. In the study'south first calendar month, however, feed intake dropped for the lambs fed the high-hemp diets, apparently because the lambs "did not desire to eat the spent hemp biomass when information technology was pelletized," Bionaz said.

However, lambs fed the alfalfa-hemp mix had improved feed intake in the long-run, Bionaz said.

Emma Penrod has covered scientific discipline and concern, with an accent on wellness, the environs and agriculture, for more than a decade. Penrod covers the animal feed industry for FeedStrategy.com and can be contacted at [email protected].

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