Eco-business / Social Venture

July 26, 2006

 

Abandoned Bamboo Forests Provide Pellets Being Developed as Cattle Fodder

Keywords: Eco-business / Social Venture Ecosystems / Biodiversity Local government Manufacturing industry 

Shinkou Kouki Corp., a Japanese manufacturer and distributor of wood pellets for stoves and pellet-making machinery, has joined the Ehime Prefectural Animal Husbandry Experimental Station in developing bamboo pellets for feeding cattle by using bamboo harvested from abandoned bamboo forests. The study was suggested when it was noticed that bamboo pellets stored for burning tests were being eaten by wild boars.

To supplement the low protein content of bamboo, they add pressed-out soybean cake left over from making soy sauce to produce mixed pellets. Tests showed that cows prefer the mixed pellets to plain bamboo pellets. Mixing in normally discarded food waste into bamboo pellets adds protein at low cost and helps reduce waste as well.

Aiming to launch production and distribution of the bamboo pellets in fiscal 2007, the company plans to obtain the necessary test data by the end of fiscal 2006.

Many bamboo groves formerly kept under control by owners, who planted them to harvest bamboo shoots, have recently been abandoned. This poses a social problem because they degrade the surrounding landscape and ecosystem. Thus a need arose for exploring new ways to utilize bamboo. Another issue was that a large portion of coarse feed for livestock is imported, constituting a major factor towards potential destabilization of livestock farming in Japan. The pellet feed from bamboo is expected to contribute not only to the sound management of bamboo forests, but also to an improvement in the nation's self-sufficiency ratio for coarse feed.



Posted: 2006/07/26 11:29:02 AM
Japanese version

 

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