This proposal seeks to generate scientific knowledge about using by-products of broccoli and broccoli crop and artichoke industry by-product in dairy goat feed in order to obtain milk with different functional properties. The proposal aims to improve the sustainability of agricultural and livestock production through the efficient use of these products. The overall objective is to solve the problem of by-product broccoli food industry, and enhance crop by-products providing scientific and technical solutions to the farmers to reduce their dependence on raw materials from abroad and the need to reduce feed costs (up around 60% of the total costs of livestock production). At the same time the assumption is the value of the produced milk and dairy products will increase by increasing functional properties. The current use of these fresh products for animal feed is seasonal without real control of goat diet (unbalanced diet), however, there are not scientific studies of its use in dairy goats, although its composition (as references scientific and other species literature indicates) will modify the characteristics of the milk obtained. This new feed system will naturally modify the technological properties of milk, thereby being capable of being transformed, through innovation and development processes of production and processing, in healthier products obtained naturally.
The methodology consists in characterizing the by-products of broccoli industry, and broccoli and artichoke crop rests, from the viewpoint of feeding goats. The evolution of their properties will be studied along the silage preservation system chosen to allow the supply seasonally adjusted. Furthermore, capacity and ingestion rate of dairy goats and preference (cafeteria studies) in the short term will be evaluated. In the medium term (2 months) the effect of the inclusion of products in isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets compared to a conventional diet, in the quality and quantity of milk produced, its technological ability and state of the animals will be evaluated. The top two products studied will be evaluated during a full lactation, including the effect of technological treatments have on the expected beneficial properties of this milk in order to develop products with higher content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, selenium and more antioxidant activity.
The project aims, through basic research and the development of sustainable processes for dairy goat feeding, obtaining milk and its dairy products, with functional properties, which will increase the efficient use of livestock resources whose results can be transferred to the agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial sector and generate scientific knowledge of international scope.
It is an interdisciplinary project in which researchers from the areas of Animal Science and Food Technology (UMH) and internacional researchers (Mexico and Italy) are involved.