Turkeys gobble up their oats for variety research

CHRISTMAS TURKEYS are enjoying the benefits of a nutrient rich diet as the Sustainable Arable LINK project, Oatlink, aims to identify and select the important traits in oat varieties for high performance poultry feeds of the future.

“The advent of naked oat varieties has opened up the poultry feed market to oats and recent work has shown that turkeys perform well on a diet including naked oats,” says Cark Maunsell of Oat Services, a partner in the project.

By developing improved rations the project will benefit oat growers and poultry producers, says HGCA R&D manager Roger Williams.