Developing a UK Forage Soya for on-farm feeding to Dairy Cows

When price and availability of imported soya protein was not an issue, UK production of soya protein was not economically viable. However the economics for vegetable protein have recently changed and soya production for forage is successfully grown in the US & S.Africa which could be adapted to enable UK production. We are evaluating non-GM soya lines for whole-crop forage harvesting in the UK thus allowing issues relating to late maturity, yield and harvesting to be overcome in more marginal livestock areas. Anti nutritional problems will be avoided, facilitating direct production and use on-farm with reduced transport/processing costs. We aim to provide growers with guidelines for production of Soya in th UK, as well as seed and inoculant for UK farmers to exploit this valuable protein source and residual Nitrogen. Our project is highly innovative and will develop new varieties for UK conditions