Don’t lose sight of pectins when formulating rations

Livestock producers must not lose sight of the importance of pectins, when choosing high digestible fibre feeds for their stock.


And according to Trident technical manager Michael Marsden, many farmers and nutritionists are “missing an opportunity” to improve rations, rumen function and livestock performance.

“Pectins are unique carbohydrates from plant cell walls that ferment as rapidly as starch in the rumen, but produce the same acetate – a milk fat precursor – that comes from digestible fibre,” said Dr Marsden.

“But pectins are hard to measure and not well understood, so although they’re integral to ration formulation in the United States, they aren’t included in feed value measurements in the UK.”

He said although many concentrate feeds contain less than 3% pectins (DM basis), high digestible fibre feeds contain much higher levels – up to 35% for sugar beet feed, 24-26% for soya hulls and about 15% for citrus pulp pellets.

In addition, he said pectins were “self-regulating” meaning if rumen pH were to fall, pectin fermentation would slow until conditions have improved.

“It’s a massive boost to the buffering effects usually only associated with digestible fibre, and a big part of the reason why feeds like sugar beet regularly outperform others which on paper have a much higher digestible fibre content,” added Dr Marsden.