OK-Net EcoFeed: 100% use of organic and regional feed for organic pig and poultry farmers

Final project year for OK-Net EcoFeed: 100% use of organic and regional feed for organic pig and poultry farmers 

Since the start of the project in 2018, OK-Net EcoFeed has been helping organic pig and poultry farmers to achieve the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed.

A key objective of organic farming is that animals are fed with feed produced on or near the farm. Yet, this is difficult to achieve in large parts of Europe. Organic feed and livestock production are concentrated in different regions. Animal feed has to be imported from regions where the animals are raised, and they can be at quite a distance. The problem is most challenging for protein feed, and organic protein is sometimes not available at all.

Bram Moeskops, OK-Net EcoFeed project coordinator said: “Increasing the availability of organic and regional feed will further improve the sustainability of organic agriculture. For the past 2 years OK-Net EcoFeed has worked with farmers, breeders and the organic feed industry to make practical solutions available to improve the use of organic and regional feed.” 

Lindsay Whistance, Senior Livestock Researcher at the Organic Research Centre said: “The OK-Net EcoFeed project is highly participatory, engaging pig and poultry farmers as well as other important stakeholders across Europe in research and problem solving. Innovation Groups are currently running trials that best fit with their regional potential and opportunities”

Among the outcomes of OK-Net EcoFeed are the OK-Net EcoFeed Knowledge Synthesis, which describes innovative resources of protein feed for organic monogastric animals (pigs, layers and broilers) and several videos showing the experiments carried out by the OK-Net EcoFeed Innovation Groups. All the videos including “Feeding Insects for Organic Layers”, “Organic Poultry production in Denmark” and others are available on the OK-Net EcoFeed website. 

The knowledge collected by OK-Net EcoFeed, including practice abstracts and videos, is available on the Organic Farm Knowledge platform. Organic Farm Knowledge hosts a wide range of tools and resources for farmers and farm advisors. The platform also serves as a virtual meeting place for cross-border and peer-to-peer learning. It provides 'ready-to-use' knowledge that can help improve production methods in organic farming. More than 200 tools are available in 13 European languages.

Visit the OK-Net EcoFeed website for the latest project updates. 

OK-Net EcoFeed is coordinated by IFOAM EU and involves 19 partners from 11 countries throughout Europe. The project is financed by Horizon 2020.

The partners of OK-Net EcoFeed are:

• IFOAM EU (Belgium)
• ICROFS (Denmark)
• FiBL (Switzerland)
• Organic Research Centre (UK)
• The Soil Association (UK)
• ITAB (France)
• IFIP (France)
• CRAPL (France)
• ITAVI (France)
• FNAB (France)
• Bioland & Bioland Beratung (Germany)
• AIAB (Italy)
• SLU (Sweden)
• Danube Soya Austria & Danube Soya Serbia, Ecovalia (Spain)
• Universidad de Córdoba (Spain)
• CIHEAM Bari (Italy)

Photo: Lege-Mast-Vergleich