Wednesday 15th March 2017, 5:00pm
Special funding of more than £2.2m - just awarded to SRUC - means three exciting new research facilities can be built.
These will offer real opportunities for innovative progress in livestock feeding efficiency and meat quality in Britain.
The finance, from the Government’s Innovate UK Fund, was won by CIEL, an innovative consortium of 12 world-class animal science research institutes, including SRUC, which work in partnership with industry, to raise the levels of food production and quality.
Work on the three projects will begin soon. The first will be one the few feed mills in Europe designed specifically to manufacturer experimental pig and poultry diets under accurate and precise conditions.
Another is a laboratory equipped to develop faster ways of measuring meat eating quality with the information used in animal breeding programmes.
The third facility will utilise the latest sensor technology to make sheep production more efficient by identifying animals best able to convert the feed they eat into marketable meat.
“There are very few facilities available in Europe able to achieve what we are aiming for in this new unit. When combined with the new poultry growing facilities that CIEL and SRUC are investing in and the pig and poultry facilities already existing in the CIEL consortium, the new feed manufacturing mill gives our pig and poultry industry world-leading research capability."
Professor Nick Sparks, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Group Manager“Particular attention will be given to maintenance costs of mature ewes
since the national ewe flock is a major consumer of livestock food and
land area to produce it. It is estimated that raising feed efficiency
this way could save the UK sheep industry £30m.”
"Our goal with these investments is Innovation. True innovation will be new ways of doing things that are widely adopted by industry. That will come if they are demonstrably more profitable, more efficient or make farming and food production more sustainable. Industry is the key partner in CIEL if we are to make this happen.”
Dr Mark Young, Head of Innovation for CIELSource: Scotland's Rural College
Roslin Innovation Centre
The University of Edinburgh
Easter Bush Campus
Midlothian EH25 9RG
