Schothorst Feed Research opens new R&D facilities
The mayor of Lelystad, the Netherlands, Mrs Horselenberg, on Saturday Oct. 1, officially opened 2 new facilities for nutrition research, a dairy and Veranda layer facility at Schothorst Feed Research.
This opening marks the completion of the first phase of an ambitious investment program in research facilities totalling 9 million euro’s. The facilities are meeting all requirements for accurate and applied feed evaluation studies.
The mayor stressed the importance of private international operating innovation centres for Lelystad at a time that governmental institutes are withdrawing from production oriented research.
Important player in research
Executive Counsellor of the province Flevoland, Mr A Greiner, emphasized the necessity of innovation in the industry and agriculture. He called Schothorst Feed Research an important player in agricultural innovation and knowledge complex in Flevoland.
The chairman of board of Schothorst Feed Research stated that with these new facilities the organization will be able to meet the increasing international demand for animal nutrition research under conditions that will be common practice in the EU after the ban on cages.
Aviary system
The new layer facilities will house 26,000 layers in a Veranda aviary system. It consists of 80 experimental units with 330 layers each.
It is a unique facility and especially designed for requirement studies, studies to measure the interaction between nutrition and behaviour, ammonia emission and registration studies for the EU.
The unit is also equipped with automatic feeding systems for each pen, and has automatic egg counting and weighing units for reliable production measurements.
Outside EU the SFR recommendations will continue to be based on the regular laying hen cages.
Dairy nutrition
The dairy facility will house 220 milking cows with 120 places for individual feeding units.
This facility enables the researchers to perform nutrition experiments with fresh cows year around.
In the next phase special metabolic units will be build for digestion experiments and rumen physiological experiments, next to the 10 rumen fistulated cows currently available.
Advanced Feed Package program
These investments support the ambition of Schothorst Feed Research to expand their position as knowledge and research centre for the feed industry world wide.
Currently, feed companies in 14, mainly European and Asian, countries, participate in the Advanced Feed Package program that focuses on development of the feedstuff evaluation programs for dairy, pigs and poultry.
Related website: Schothorst Feed Research
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