PENTSUBERRI

The project will study the technical-economic feasibility of replacing soya and palm oil with rapeseed cake and oil obtained by cold pressing in rations for fattening calves.

Focusing on 4 aspects:

• Social sustainability, replacing imported raw materials (soya and palm) with alternatives that can be produced locally (rapeseed).
• Environmental sustainability, reducing the environmental impact of transport and deforestation associated with these crops (also taking into account that a beef diet with a higher fat content is expected to lead to lower enteric methane emissions).
• Economic sustainability, replacing foreign raw materials in feed, often subject to market volatility, with locally sourced raw materials, in principle with lower associated costs (transport).
• Nutritional quality, improving the fatty acid profile of the meat, and organoleptic quality.

In this way, the project aims to contribute to alleviating the deficit of raw materials for animal feed caused by the Ukraine war, to improve the sustainability of livestock farms in the Basque Country and to demonstrate under commercial conditions that the protein content of diets for fattening calves can come entirely from crops grown in the Basque Country, promoting greater interaction between farmers-feed mills and livestock farmers, and thus more integrated mixed systems (agriculture-livestock farming) at a territorial level, reducing the environmental impact of the feed of this productive sector and contributing to closing economic flows at a local level.