Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges

448Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challengesMAIN MESSAGES• The current small biofuels industry in Australia, basedlargely on the use of co-products of grain and sugarindustry, is not a significant challenge to the availabilityof feedstocks for the intensive livestock industriesand only provides a relatively small amount of coproductfor livestock feed. An expansion of the currentfirst generation biofuels industry would increase directcompetition for grain, but would also increase theavailability of protein feedstuffs – DDGS and oilseedmeals, which could provide a useful source of supplementaryprotein for livestock grazing low-protein, drysummer pastures. DDGS is particularly suitable for thisrole in ruminants.• New, non-food biomass production systems for biofueland bio-energy are being researched and developed inAustralia. These include the use of ligno cellulosic feedstocksfrom agricultural residues and on-farm plantingsof short-rotation coppicing eucalypts; and newbio-oil feedstocks, such as the low-rainfall oilseed cropBrassica juncea, the oilseed tree Pongamia pinnata,and algae. Much work remains yet to be done to fullydesign, test and implement the production systems.• The harvesting of stubble for bio-energy should havelittle impact on grazing livestock in mixed grazingcroppingfarming systems. There is little of nutritionalvalue in stubble for grazing livestock. When modelledas part of a whole farm system, the value for livestockof grazing stubble is variable, often marginal or negative.The use of long-phase perennial pasture rotationsin the cropping-livestock system is the most beneficialpractice in the long-term maintenance of croppingsoils and will always provide the major opportunityfor livestock within the system, whether stubble isharvested for bio-energy or grazed.• The re-introduction of trees for bio-energy and biofuelsinto cleared agricultural lands in Australia, willprovide direct benefits in livestock productivity andanimal welfare through the provision of shade andshelter as well as long-term benefits through landconservation for the grazing livestock industries. Theintegration of biomass production in the form of SRCeucalypts with pasture and livestock grazing mayprovide a benefit in improved resilience and land conservationwhile maintaining economic productivity ofthe land.• Integration of cropping, grazing and bio-energy productionpresents a complex set of biophysical, socialand economic interactions that will need to be wellunderstood to ensure sustainable development ofsuch land use. While some recent research at landscapescale has been reported here, there is need to continuethis at a range of scales, including sociological, to betterunderstand the likely land use changes in Australiaassociated with developing bio-energy industries.processing co-products that can be used as livestock feed.However, the biomass production systems themselves caneither compete with, or be complementary to, animalproduction systems. In this sense, animal production canbe viewed as a legitimate co-product of biofuel production,albeit in a different part of the value chain than usuallyassumed.The co-products produced from the current biofuelsindustry and the value of these for the Australian livestockindustries are outlined as they are available and arebeing utilized now. However, the potential move towardsthe production of bio-energy and biofuels from nonfoodfeedstocks raises the question: “What will be thelikely challenges and opportunities for the Australianlivestock industries associated with land use change forthe production of these feedstocks for bio-energy andbiofuels?”CURRENT BIOFUEL PRODUCTION IN AUSTRALIAThe amount of biofuels currently being produced in Australiais small in comparison with global activities. In 2009,as a percentage of the world’s total, Australia’s ethanolproduction was 0.15 percent, biodiesel was 0.4 percent(F.O. Licht, 2009), and, over all, biofuels represented onlyabout 0.5 percent of Australia’s transport fuel consumption.Over the past decade there have been numerous proposalsfor the development of first-generation biofuel productionfacilities in Australia, not all of which have proceeded.Of those that have, some are not currently in productiondue to changes in feedstock costs and other economicissues. In 2008–09 actual production of biofuels wasapproximately 50 percent of the stated production capacity(ABARE, 2010a; Geoscience Australia and ABARE, 2010).As a consequence the amount of co-product available forlivestock is relatively small.An estimate has been made of the amount ofco-products, i.e. wet or dried distillers grain and proteinmeals, based on the stated capacities of the small numberof bio-ethanol and biodiesel plants currently in production(Table 1). These are potentially available to the Australianlivestock industries if the plants are operating at full capacity,and in the absence of imported biofuel co-products.