Olive Pulp-Enriched Diet Benefits Cattle and Reduces Costs

Summary

New research in Andalusia has shown that adding olive pulp to the diet of dairy and beef cat­tle results in favor­able changes to the fatty acid pro­files of milk and beef, reduc­ing costs for ranch­ers and dairy farm­ers. Additionally, sen­sory test­ing indi­cated that con­sumers pre­ferred the taste and smell of the meat pro­duced from ani­mals fed the olive pulp-enriched diet.

New research has demon­strated that dairy and beef cat­tle fed a diet sup­ple­mented with olive pulp pro­duced milk and beef with favor­able changes in the fatty acid pro­files com­pared to a stan­dard diet. 

Researchers in Andalusia also found that sub­sti­tut­ing ten per­cent of the cere­als and soy­bean meal used in con­ven­tional calf feed and five per­cent of the typ­i­cal dry feed for dairy cows with olive pulp low­ered costs for ranch­ers and dairy farm­ers by nine per­cent and 6.5 per­cent, respec­tively. 

Furthermore, sen­sory test­ing of the beef and milk pro­duced from cows fed the diet sup­ple­mented with olive pulp was received favor­ably by con­sumers. 

The research team, which included DCOOP, Spain’s largest olive oil coop­er­a­tive, incor­po­rated olive pulp into the cattle’s diet for 45 to 60 days, pro­vid­ing suf­fi­cient time for rumi­nal adap­ta­tion before tak­ing milk and meat sam­ples.

The researchers iden­ti­fied no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences in the com­po­si­tion or quan­tity of the milk pro­duced by cat­tle after eat­ing the olive pulp-enriched diet. 

Although they did observe a favor­able change in fatty acid pro­file of the milk, ​“with an increase in the con­tent of fatty acids that cur­rent sci­en­tific knowl­edge attrib­utes to anti-inflam­ma­tory and anti­tu­mor prop­er­ties in the human body.”

Meanwhile, the research teams noted that beef cat­tle fed the olive pulp-enriched diet did not demon­strate sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences in growth rate or final weight. However, the diet also appeared to mod­ify the fatty acid pro­file of the intra­mus­cu­lar fat ​“in a way that was ben­e­fi­cial to human health.”

The changes in the fatty acid pro­file also altered the pro­file of its volatile com­pounds, result­ing in a slightly dif­fer­ent smell and fla­vor for the meat. 

“In the sen­sory analy­sis, con­sumers gave higher scores to the smell and fla­vor of the meat from ani­mals fed olive pulp,” added Carmen Avilés, a researcher at the University of Córdoba’s ceiA3 lac­tol­ogy and meat tech­nol­ogy group, which was also involved in the stud­ies.

The research comes amid a broader effort in Andalusia, the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin, to cre­ate a cir­cu­lar agri-food econ­omy with con­sid­er­able empha­sis on olive milling byprod­ucts.

Millions of met­ric tons of par­tially defat­ted and pit­ted olive pulp are pro­duced annu­ally in Spain and have his­tor­i­cally been viewed as a waste prod­uct, incur­ring costs for treat­ment and dis­posal.

However, a wide range of new research projects are find­ing ways to recy­cle byprod­ucts from olive oil pro­duc­tion, cre­at­ing new rev­enue streams for pro­duc­ers.

A 2024 study pub­lished by researchers in Italy had already found that incor­po­rat­ing olive pomace and olive leaves into the diets of sheep, another rumi­nant, also low­ered feed­ing costs with­out neg­a­tively impact­ing health or milk qual­ity. 

Separate research also iden­ti­fied polyphe­nols extracted from olive milling waste as a promis­ing ingre­di­ent in aqua­cul­ture feed, specif­i­cally for sea bream.