Three new HGCA research projects worth a collaborative £1.5m will investigate better ways to measure the nutritional value of grain and oilseeds.

HGCA is contributing £650k to the research, which aims to benefit growers and feed processors by examining the effects of feed quality on animal performance and developing quicker tests for nutritional quality. Additional funding has been secured from government and industry sources.

Dr Martin Grantley-Smith, HGCA Head of Business Development, said, "HGCA is investing in this suite of projects to help ensure grain of certain quality goes to the most suitable end use. This will cut down on waste for the benefit of the whole supply chain.

"We are also aware that imported soya-meal may become less attractive for feed because of price and availability. By exploring the potential to increase the use of alternative cereals and oilseeds-based nutrition in rations, this could provide a big opportunity for growers, as well as the pig and poultry supply chain."

Two projects will look at how higher levels of rapeseed meal could be included in pig and poultry feed without compromising tight feed specifications or animal performance.

£325k has been awarded to SRUC, NIAB and the University of Nottingham to work out optimum levels of rapeseed meal in feed. This complements an £850k project to develop fast tools to establish the nutritive quality of rapeseed meal and predict heavy metal and mycotoxin levels in DDGS offered to pigs and poultry in the UK, using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and similar techniques. The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland will lead the project alongside a number of research and industry partners.

Wheat for broiler chickens is the focus of the final project, which looks at using NIRS to predict the nutritional value of wheat. In response to concerns raised during the 2012 harvest, the project is also investigating how moisture, Fusarium and Microdochium levels in wheat affect broiler performance. HGCA is contributing £123k out of a total of £353k to the project, which is also led by AFBI.

More information on the projects is available at hgca.com/research