Research Objective
To develop higher value feeding strategy and maintain and increase business in competitive market for pulse producers and industry from lower or no value of damaged faba bean forage and damaged faba bean seeds (“try to extract high value from no value faba”).
Objective 4To increase basic knowledge of the nutritional relevance of damaged and normal forage faba and faba bean to apply this information to the production of high quality feeding programs and to aid forage faba and faba bean breeding programs.
In Saskatchewan and Western Canada, due to cold and unexpected cold climate condition, faba bean are often frost/frozen-damaged. However, salvage value, feed value and feeding value in frost/frozen damaged faba bean forage and seeds is unknown. There is an urgent need to develop a comprehensive research program for pulse producers, industries, and livestock industry with a systematic approach to determine:
1. Salvage values of damaged faba forage and faba bean in ruminant livestock systems
2. To determine feed values of normal faba forage and faba bean for both beef and dairy cattle
3. To determine effect of faba bean varieties, effect of processing methods on faba bean to find optimal methods, and effect of tannin level on nutrient availability of faba beans
4. To develop new faba feeding strategy for both beef and dairy cattle in sustainable animal production systems in Saskatchewan and Western Canada
Hypothesis: Different varieties/lines of faba bean seeds, feed processing treatments and different tannin levels (high or low) will impact the structural, physicochemical, and nutritional characterization of normal faba beans grown in Western Canada and affect nutrient utilization and availability in ruminant livestock. The induced structural change by feed processing is highly associated with nutrient availability in animals.