Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Fermentation processes – Of plant or plant derived material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-27
2001-05-01
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Fermentation processes
Of plant or plant derived material
C426S029000, C426S623000, C426S630000, C426S635000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224916
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of preserving plant matter for use as animal feed and animal feed
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are a wide variety of plants that are used as forage and fodder for feeding animals. Common crops include corn, alfalfa, timothy, clover, oats, rye grass, fescue grass, orchard grass, legumes, kale, barley, wheat, sorghum, sudan, canary grass, rhodes grass and mixtures of the foregoing. In addition, there are forages and fodders that are unique to specific geographical regions.
When a forge or fodder crop is harvested, it must be preserved so that it will be available for use in feeding the animals, as required. The preservation method must limit the deterioration of the feed while maximizing retained nutritional value. There are three common alternative methods of preserving forage or fodder crops; sun curing, ensiling or dehydrating. Sun curing is not an option in many part of the world as weather conditions do not permit such curing. The ensiling method of preservation involves fermenting wet forage or fodder in an anaerobic environment. The dehydrating method of preservation involves passing the forage or fodder through dryers to substantially reduce the moisture content. Ensiling provides a number of advantages over both sun curing and dehydrating. Ensiled feed has an aroma and flavour that is attractive to livestock and is moist and tender, which makes it very palatable and easy to digest by livestock. It also retains a higher nutritional value. It has a longer storage life than either dehydrated or sun cured feed, if ensiled and stored properly.
Whether ensiling or dehydrating is used as the method of preservation is often dictated by the distance from the source that the animal feed is to be consumed. Silage has a moisture content of between 35 and 75 percent. Whiles this moisture makes the feed very palatable and easy to digest by livestock, it also makes the feed heavy and bulky, which renders it uneconomical to transport silage over long distances. A further problem in transporting silage over long distances, it that when silage is removed from its anaerobic storage facility and exposed to air, it rapidly spoils. The farther the animal feed is to be consumed from the source, the more likely that dehydrating or, where possible, sun cured processes are used as the method of preservation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention describes an alternative method of preserving plant matter for use as animal feed and an animal feed with unique properties made in accordance with the teachings of the method.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of preserving plant matter for use as animal feed. A first step involves ensiling live plant matter for a sufficient time duration that the plant matter is preserved as silage. A second step involves dehydrating the silage sufficiently that the dehydrated silage does not spoil when exposed to air.
With the present invention the two known methods of preservation, ensiling and dehydrating, are sequentially combined. It was previously considered that these two methods were mutually exclusive alternatives. By combining the two methods a unique product has been derived, as will hereinafter be further described. It is now possible to transport silage in its dehydrated form. Upon arrival at the destination the silage may be either fed dry or rehydrated prior to feeding. Where the dehydrated silage is to be shipped, it is preferred that a further step be taken of compressing and then binding the dehydrated silage to maintain it in the compressed state. This reduces the total volume of the dehydrated silage in preparation for shipping.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an animal feed which consists in whole or in part of dehydrated silage.
Dehydrated silage has unique properties. The most striking of those properties are that of aroma and flavour. Upon dehydration the silage loses its strong silage aroma and develops a new flavour. The dehydrated silage has a unique aroma. This aroma varies slightly with the amount of moisture that is removed. For example, dehydrated corn silage with a moisture content of less than 5% has an aroma similar to corn flakes cereal. Upon rehydration, the dehydrated silage acquires a stronger aroma; but that aroma and flavour remain distinctive from silage. The aroma and flavour of the dehydrated silage, in both its dry form and a rehydrated wet form, has proven to be attractive to animals. This aroma and flavour can only be produced by the method described herein.
A number of other benefits have been obtained through the use of dehydrated silage as animal feed. It has proven to be much easier to mix different types of silage in their dehydrated from. This has enabled blended animal feeds to be prepared for shipment. Previously, this was not commercially feasible; as silage was consumed close to the source of origin to avoid spoilage, blending could only be done by farmers at the time of feeding.
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Christensen O'Connor Johnson & Kindness PLLC
Reber Research & Market Development Co. Ltd.
Sayala Chhaya D.
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