Duck weed, any pond owner is probably very familiar with the stuff. It is a free floating plant that tries to exclude any light from getting into your pond by blanketing the entire surface.
But did you know it can be useful such as in the production of ethanol, biodiesel, and plastics? Now researchers would also like to use it as a protein source for pigs.
Yes, it seems that the humble weed contains within it more protein than soybean and as it grows on water it does not compete for land with other crops. It does have slightly less phosphorus than soybean but the researchers think that inclusion of duck weed derived protein in pigs diets will not compromise their energy intake or level of digestible protein ingested.
There has been growing concern over the last few years about the cost of meat production. This is generally because the animals for meat are fed high quality grains that could have been given directly to people to eat.
We’ve blogged a few times about insect protein (bugs a la carte, fly reared steak) as a possible alternative but nice to see there are more options out there. Lets just make sure we say some for the ducks.
Click here to go to the publication of the Journal of Animal Science website.