Utilising condensed tannins to improve productivity and reduce greenhouse gases
The benefits to sheep and cattle are substantial and wide ranging.
Grasslanz Technology is working with several R&D partners to develop condensed tannin (CT) expression in important forages and pasture plants.
What are condensed tannins?
Condensed tannins are naturally occurring polyphenols found in various forages, trees, shrubs, some legumes and human foods.
What is the impact on productivity from feed containing condensed tannins?
The benefits of forages containing condensed tannins fed to ruminant livestock are extensively documented in scientific publications and are significant in terms of improved performance, nutrition, health, parasite control, and reduced methane production and energy losses.
Benefit |
Estimated impact |
| Protein and Nitrogen use efficiency in the rumen |
Reduced ruminal protein degradation and increased absorption of essential amino acids by 60% (Waghorn 1987) Tannins divert excess Nitrogen away from urine to faeces which are degraded more slowly (Somda 1993) |
| Bloat control | Tannin concentration >1.0% to remedy bloat (McNabb pers. comm.) |
| Anthelmintic effect | Up to 145% increase in daily weight gain in parasitized lambs (Waghorn 2008) |
| Ovulation rate | Increased reproductive efficiency by increasing fecundity (+13%) and by reducing embryonic loss (+22% increase in lamb births) (Min 2001) |
| Live weight gain | Increased lamb daily liveweight gains of up to 38% (Waghorn 2008) |
| Fly strike | 40% less flystrike and 30% less dags in lambs (Leathwick 1995) |
| Wool growth | Up to 10% higher wool growth (Waghorn 2008) |
| Milk production | Up to 10% higher milk production for dairy cows and 21% for ewes (Waghorn 2008) |
| Milk composition |
5% increase in milk protein yield (Woodward 1999). Increased lactoferrin and omega-3 fatty acids and decreased saturated fatty acids in cows milk (Turner 2005) |
| Meat composition | Saturated fatty acids were lower in the fat from animals grazing tannin containing forages (Priolo 2005) |
| Methane production |
Reduced methane production by 16% (Waghorn 2002). Reductions of 16-19% demonstrated with Hi-CT white clover (Roldan et al. 2021) Methane production represents an energy loss to ruminants of around 3 to 9% of gross energy intake (Tavendale 2005). |
How is Grasslanz developing forages expressing condensed tannins?
Utilising genetic modification methods, Grasslanz and its research partners have taken the gene responsible for condensed tannin expression in an annual clover lacking agronomic merit and transfered it into white clover. Further research is underway to express condensed tannins in other forages and arable crops.
Overall, condensed tannins are valuable compounds for grazing livestock, as they can reduce bloat, improve protein utilization, reduce methane emissions, and even aid in parasite control.
If you are interested in a developed forage or feed crop solution in collaboration with Grasslanz, we’d love to hear from you.
