| Project Name: | Moolasses Dairy Mineral Supplement |
|---|---|
| BPA Number: | 25346 |
| Funding Round: | May 2025 |
| Report(s): | 2, BSI Feed preference, intake, and rumen fermentation in growing calves fed dairy origin syrups compared with cane molasses
CI 1294 Molasses: Enzymatic hydrolysis of milk permeate |
| For enquiries contact: | Peter Dyer |
| Phone: | 029 299 4226 |
| Email: | Peter.Dyer@callaghaninnovation.govt.nz |
Summary of Project and Key Findings (for public disclosure):
Low-grade dairy byproducts streams were valorised for used as a calf feed. The project successful generated 100’s of kg of prototype product, which was successfully feed to calves. The project will move on to increased volumes.
Catalogue of IP Generated by the Project (kept confidential to the BPA):
Processing method for producing the dairy syrup at scale.
Statement from the industry partner describing the business impact of the project (kept confidential to the BPA):
This project demonstrates a scalable approach to converting dairy permeates into a value-added syrup, improving both economic return and resource efficiency.
Fonterra produces large volumes of lactose-rich side streams that are currently underutilized and/or costly to managed. This project investigated a processing route to enhance their conversion into an easy to store and transport carbohydrate concentrate via the hydrolysis of poorly soluble lactose into soluble glucose, galactose, and GOS.
The work initially compared chemical and biological hydrolysis routes and downstream processing to replace molasses as a dairy cow feed supplement.
Key outcomes include:
- The chemical hydrolysis was deemed unsuitable as it required high temperature and pressure and generated potentially toxic metabolites.
- The biological route was found suitable and took the advantage of valorising a yeast waste generated at Fonterra.
- The process combining hydrolysis with permeabilized yeast followed by clarification (optional) and evaporation to a ca 75% solid content syrup was demonstrated at a pilot scale with more than 500 kg of syrup being produced.
- The syrups (with or without yeast depending on if clarification was used) are similar to better
composition than molasses in the most relevant metrics for animal nutrition. - During field testing, ruminating calves preferred the syrups over molasses with fed as a 20% blend with PKA, with negative impact on feed intake and rumen fermentation profile.
The project highlights a clear pathway to increase value extraction from dairy streams while reducing waste. This supports both economic and environmental goals within the New Zealand dairy sector.
Further optimisation and scale-up are now warranted to validate commercial implementation.
TRL at start of project = 3
TRL at end of project = 4
Comments are closed.