Practice Abstract 13 - Developments that can influence European supply chains. Project deliverable 5.1. A summary of Chapter 3: Environmental Services

Short title (native language): 
Developments that can influence European supply chains. Project deliverable 5.1. A summary of Chapter 3: Environmental Services

Short summary for practitioners (native language): 
Annually, the EU imports around 30 million tonnes of soya bean and meal products. Soya import values may increase due to increasing international demand. Sharp price rises in the period 2007-13 saw imports fall by 30%. Current prices are still 50-75 % higher than in 1999 but imports have increased again. Rising import prices raise the EU-grown protein crop values increasing the competitive position and reducing yield gap.

Competitiveness of EU legumes and breeding: investment in plant breeding and protein production are needed to reduce EU soya imports. Grain legumes to replace imports for feed include EU grown soya bean, faba bean, field pea and lupins. Also, alfalfa may be considered. Breeding for more competitive varieties is required but poor current EU market opportunities for legumes draw less commercial interest. A catch-22 situation of interdependency which EU policy may be used to break.

Integrating legumes into farming systems:
assuming competitive legume crops are available, the introduction, expansion, and assimilation of legume benefits into EU arable systems is an important issue.
With rising costs for N-fertiliser and animal feed, mixing clover with grass on pastures is getting more interesting to dairy farmers. An interesting question is why Alfalfa is not grown more often on EU grasslands - it can be grazed or preserved as silage or hay.

To replace soya bean in compound feed, inclusion levels of alternatives are likely limited, requiring a mixture of soya replacements. Legumes other than soya being used in non-compound feeds: whole cropping beans in the UK, as roughage and protein, faba beans for cattle and sheep and peas as forage feed. Locally, soya beans can be used as roughage.