How We Grow

2021 March/April How We Grow

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ZERO WASTE Research Spotlights Potential Win-Win for Almonds, Poultry and Dairy With 527 million chickens in the United States consuming rations daily to provide eggs and meat for the nation's tables, the economic opportunity to be part of the poultry industry's nutritional strategy amounts to a lot more than "chickenfeed." Recent research supported by the Almond Board of California (ABC) shows promise that almond hulls may one day be an important part of a nutritious breakfast – and lunch and dinner – for the country's chickens. "Almond hulls have long played an important role in feeding California's dairy cows," said ABC Chief Scientific Officer Josette Lewis, Ph.D. "But with the dairy industry shrinking somewhat in recent years, even as almond acreage has grown, we must work harder than ever to find new economically and environmentally sound uses for almond hulls." The opportunity for new uses is huge: about 6.5 billion pounds of almond hulls were produced in California in 2020 alone. "Historically, about 90% of these hulls have gone to the California dairy industry," said Guangwei Huang, associate director of Food Research and Technology at ABC. "That has had huge environmental benefits, reducing the amount of land, air and water needed to grow feed for cows, while ensuring that this valuable resource produced by almond growers is not wasted." "Still, with reducing demand from dairy and increasing supply available because of the growth of the almond industry, we've watched the price paid for hulls to almond growers and shellers drop sharply," Huang said. "Therefore, it is critical that we generate increased demand for hulls to control the costs of hulling and shelling, and to ensure that this valuable byproduct of almond growing finds its best use." How can almonds benefit poultry? One study supported by ABC and conducted by University of Georgia researchers showed that "broilers" – chickens grown to produce meat – can be fed a ration of up to 9% "prime" (Nonpareil) hulls, or up to 6% of other (typically pollinator) hulls without negatively effecting the animals' body weight. Other University of Georgia research showed equally promising results for "layers" – chickens primarily raised to produce eggs. That study showed including up to 15% almond hulls in layer rations "had no negative effect on egg production and egg quality." While results are promising, researchers said more inquiry is needed to determine other potential benefits and to fine-tune the rations for optimum results. "One result we find particularly interesting is that the research is showing almond hulls contain antioxidants and other beneficial components that may actually improve the health of chickens," Huang said. "This could be of great interest to poultry scientists and the poultry industry because of the increasing trend toward restriction of using antibiotics in feed or in protecting flocks. Feed ingredients that help build the birds' natural immunity will likely be of great interest moving forward." Researchers aren't limiting their efforts to simply grinding and mixing almond hulls into poultry rations. One particularly innovative approach, led by Dr. Zhiliang Fan of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of California, Davis, is looking at whether hulls can be processed into a higher-protein (and therefore higher-value) feed supplement for both poultry and aquatic feed. Under this novel approach, fungi and nutrients are added to hulls, which are then stored for a few days under temperature- and climate-controlled conditions, allowing the hulls to ferment into a protein-rich biomass that researchers believe could be used as a poultry feed supplement. Research in this area is ongoing. Dairies still play vital role Though the demand for almond hulls from the California dairy industry has waned somewhat, it remains – by far – the largest user of hulls, and all indications are that dairies will continue to rely on hulls as an important source of feed. At Philip Verwey Farms in Hanford, the herd of about 10,000 milk cows are each University of Georgia poultry nutritionist Dr. Wookyun Kim and his team won the Poultry Nutrition Research Award from the American Feed Industry Association in 2020 for ABC-funded research demonstrating how ground almond hulls are a good supplement for broiler and laying chickens. 7

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