About the project

The target group for the project is Norwegian oat farmers in particular and Norwegian agriculture in general, given the importance of oats as a crop and feed. The project aims to increase the sustainability of Norwegian food production.

The production of healthy and safe oats ensures that oats will remain an important feed for future generations, not only for ruminants, even though it is these animals that are discussed here. Healthy oats with low toxin content are unproblematic to use, especially for poultry, but also in relatively large quantities for pigs. In addition, an oat crop with low levels of mycotoxins is well suited for direct consumption.

Organization

The project is led by NMBU's Faculty of Biosciences (Biovit) and is a collaboration between the Department of Animal and Aquaculture Sciences (IHA), the Department of Plant Sciences (IPV) and the Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science (KBM). The user partners in the project are Graminor, Felleskjøpet Fôrutvikling and TINE. These are important end users of the project results and are represented in the project management and steering group, which ensures implementation of the project results.

• Background

  There is a need to update knowledge about the production and use of oats as feed and food in Norway. The four-year project description focuses on building a knowledge base to ensure the production and utilization of oats for animal feed.

  This will be achieved through the development of oat varieties with reduced susceptibility to Fusarium fungi, thereby reducing the problem of mycotoxins in oats. The project focuses in particular on the use of oats in feed for ruminants and dairy cows. For ruminants, there is a need for a more precise description of the feed value than we have today. This applies to both energy and protein. In addition, oats have a high fat content, which makes it possible to influence the fatty acid composition and thus the nutritional quality of dairy products. Based on this, the objectives of the project are defined as shown above.

  The project will be carried out in six work packages

  WP1: Project management
  WP2: Oats as feed for ruminants (3 trials with cows)
  WP3: Oats and product quality, with production of dairy products from milk produced from oat-based feed
  WP4: Genetic mapping of Fusarium resistance
  WP5: Genetic improvements for Fusarium resistance, and WP6: Publication and dissemination.

  

• Objectives

  The main objective of the project is to reduce the risk of mycotoxins in oats and to improve the assessment of the nutritional value of oats for dairy cows so that oats can continue to be used to produce milk of high nutritional quality, thereby helping to secure oats as an important crop in Norwegian agriculture.

  The sub-goals of the project are:

  • Investigate, update, and document the nutritional value of oats for dairy cows.
  • Investigate the effect of oats on milk yield and milk composition (WP2).
  • Investigate the effect of oats on fatty acid composition and significance in dairy products (WP3).
  • Study the effect of oats on N utilization and methane production (Task 2.3 WP2).
  • Identify genes in oats associated with sensitivity to Fusarium langsethiae (WP4).
  • Develop a prediction model for oat resistance to Fusarium pathogens (WP5).
  • Develop selection methods for future oats without mycotoxins and with improved feed value.

Participants

NMBU participants

External participants

Graminor:
Espen Sørensen (WP leader)
Muath Alsheikh

Felleskjøpet Fôrutvikling:
Linda Karlsson TINE
Jon Kristian Sommerseth

Aarhus University:
Martin Riis Weisbjerg

University of Minnesota:
YYanhong Dong