FEATURE
The pasture advantage
Thanks to our temperate climate, New Zealand farmers are expert producers of forage crops. Not only do these crops provide rich food for producing livestock, they have untapped potential as sources of protein or biofuel. Richard Rennie explores the possibilities.
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ew Zealand has a reasonably reliable rainfall and grass to thank, at least in part, for its verdant lush greenness that makes the country’s rural landscape so easy on the eye. But underlying those rolling vistas of pasture and crop is a vast surplus of plant protein that creates a paradox for our farming sector. “Grass fed” red meat and milk products are in high demand internationally, increasingly recognised for their high-quality, nutrient-dense food value. However, having more crude protein available in pasture than livestock are capable of digesting leads to the protein being converted and excreted as nitrogen. This in turn contributes to excess nitrate-nitrogen in water systems and aquifers. New Zealand scientists are working on ways to extract protein from our abundant forage crops, including ryegrass and alfalfa, in a way that can deliver an alternative protein for human food. This could offer a means to better balance livestock diets, without diluting
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the “grass fed” value proposition. Alternatively, after recovering the protein, the residual fractions could go towards making biofuels to drive a low-emissions future. Dr Lee Huffman Food Solutions Leader at Plant & Food Research, and her team are focused on maximising the total amount of protein extractable from pasture crops. The team have developed proprietary systems and processes to do so that include technology adopted from other sectors, including vegetable juicing and milk protein isolation. “The technology we have developed could apply to any soft, leafy green plant, including common pastoral feed crops ryegrass, alfalfa, kale and forage brassicas. “Our modelling shows that alfalfa and ryegrass are the best crops for establishing a plant protein industry in New Zealand. Traditional technologies have focused on extracting RuBisCO, a protein that is only 50% of the total protein available. We’ve developed a technology with a much higher yield, extracting as much protein as possible. Combining a high potential yield with existing
