https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/find-connect/projects/bovine-beef-innovation-network-europe
Implemented in Poland, Silesian Region, Kamyk, small scale beef farm,
The farm specializes in fattening Limousine cattle and direct sale of beef. To improve the quality of culinary beef, owner Jacek Orszulak decided to introduce a 120-day finishing ratio for all bulls before slaughter, in order to improve the culinary quality of the beef, especially marbling. Rising prices of feed components, mainly cereals, forced the lords to look for alternatives. The close vicinity of the biscuit factory resulted in an unusual idea to use leftover biscuits and cakes in a feeding ratio for finishing bulls.
In order to improve the quality of beef sold directly to customers, nutritional modifications have been made to the Limousine bull feeding ratio. There was introduced 120 days of finish period based on high energy content of starch components. However, due to the high price of cereals in the ration, a mainly sponge and biscuit crowbars were used and the remains of cakes from the nearby located cake factory were used. The chemical composition of the samples was analyzed, and then the biscuit scraps replaced 50% of the cereal components in the ration.
The introduction of a 120-day finish resulted in an improvement in the marbling of the meat, which was noticeable to our customers - adds Jacek, the owner of the farm. In addition, we have benefited from reducing the cost of feeding, because the price of grain in our country reaches 200 euro/t, and we get a crowbar for 30% of this price. Thanks to this, we saved about 1 euro / head / day.
Further information
Jayathilakan K, Sultana K, Radhakrishna K, Bawa AS. Utilization of byproducts and waste materials from meat, poultry and fish processing industries: a review. J Food Sci Technol. 2012 Jun;49(3):278-93. doi: 10.1007/s13197-011-0290-7. Epub 2011 Feb 20. PMID: 23729848; PMCID: PMC3614052