Growing azolla alternatives?

[rockethoe]

I just read this Article. It’s about a place that replaced 3/4 of its chicken feed with azola that they grew themselves, and they saw a bump in production and better eggshell quality.

I keep a laying flock of 100, and hoping to double this year.

I’m in ireland, so I think our climate might not be warm enough for this. Any alternatives that are as easy, as fast, and as high in protein and potential as this seems to be, but will also grow in ireland?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've not seen any study successfully replacing more than 25% of the feed with Azolla. Most of the studies I have seen are from India or Bangladesh, and the Azolla replaced "expensive feed". You will note that the nutritional composition of "expensive feed" is lacking. We really don't know what they were replacing. Best performance was at substiution rates between 5% and 10%.

Azolla is surprisingly low in Methionine and also Tryptophan in spite of its relatively high CP (on a dry weight basis). It is a very good Lysine source, at least.

As with anything else, it can be part of a solution, but it isn't "THE Solution". It really depends a lot on what it is being paired with. If your feed is already high Lysine, low Methionine (as many Organic feeds are), this would not be expected to help much [if at all]. OTOH, if your feed is high Mehtionine low Lysine (truly unlikely), you could see incredible results from this.

and remember that Azolla, like Duckweed, is a bioaccumulator - whatever is in your water will be concentrated in this green forage, for good or ill.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I learned the hard way to not grow duckweed under cashew trees. The flower and leaves seem to be quite poisonous, killed all the duckweed after a few weeks of fantastic growth. Probably a good thing as Stormcrow pointed out the bio accumulator thing.

 

[TooCheep]

I use duckweed (Lemna minor) as a supplement for my feed. As @U_Stormcrow says, it isn't perfectly balanced nutritionally, so I only use a limited amount. My small flock readily eats it when mixed in with their fermented feed.

It is important to note that duckweed is a bioaccumulator, so it can soak up heavy metals and other pollutants. Very nice for helping to clean up polluted environments, but you want to be careful about growing it in polluted water before feeding to your chickens.

I grow it in my aquarium over the winter and in a kiddie pool during warmer months. I'm careful about the type of water I use in both. Both have guppies which provide nutrients the plants need. The guppies breed prolifically, so they end up becoming chicken treats as well. You can dry the duckweed, but I no longer bother since I grow it 365 days/year and they would be re-hydrated in the fermented feed. My duckweed doubles in volume in about ~4 days, so I can just scoop out some every day and use it fresh.

Some nutritional info specific to Lemna minor including pretty good levels of Methionine and Lysine. It contains about 36% protein and 8.5% fats (dry weight).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6196230/

Hey @U_Stormcrow - Please look at tables 2-4 in the link above and let me know if you see any red flags. Thanks.

Interesting trivia- Lemna minor can be also used to produce bio-fuels and can be consumed by pigs, cattle and humans.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hey @U_Stormcrow - What is the recommended level of Tryptophan?

Interesting trivia- Lemna minor can be also used to produce bio-fuels and can be consumed by pigs, cattle and humans.

0.2% Tryp (based on the 100g / 0.25# feed per day thumb rule for feed within the normal range of energy content). If you come up with a very low energy feed, you can go lower, since your birds will eat more of it to meet their metabolic needs. If you have an energy desne feed, unless you are fattening Cx or ducks for table, you will need more, since they will likely eat less weight / day.

and I'm going to try duckweed when I set up my aquaponics system with a pair of 275 gal tanks as my main reservior. Looks like I'll need two 55 gal drums for filtration, so one will be used for duckweed production. If it works well, I'll expand it - I have a pond in desperate need of cleaning up. But really need to drain it, clean it out, re-dig the hoolw, fix the holes in the liner.... So yeah, never going to happen. More likel'y I'll just add bentonit to seal the holes and keep raising the sides.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Some nutritional info specific to Lemna minor including pretty good levels of Methionine and Lysine. It contains about 36% protein and 8.5% fats (dry weight).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6196230/

Hey @U_Stormcrow - Please look at tables 2-4 in the link above and let me know if you see any red flags. Thanks.

Thank you for finding this link again, I'll need to re-read it this weekend before offering any opinions.

 

[TooCheep]

Thank you for finding this link again, I'll need to re-read it this weekend before offering any opinions.

Thanks.

If you decide you want some Lemna minor for your aquaponics setup, let me know and I'll mail you some.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thanks.

If you decide you want some Lemna minor for your aquaponics setup, let me know and I'll mail you some.

THANK YOU! I can probably grab some from the pond down the street, but I do appreciate the offer.