The USA’s Hemp Feed Coalition has had another win in its efforts to allow hemp seed meal to be fed to laying hens.
Hemp Seed Meal (HSM) is obtained by grinding or milling the cake, a by-product of pressing hemp seeds to extract oil. Although considered waste, HSM has nutritional profile suitable for stock feed purposes as it contains essential vitamins, minerals, and a comprehensive protein profile with all 20 amino acids.
However, HSM hadn’t been approved for use as stock feed at a federal level in the USA, mainly due to concerns about the potential presence of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) winding up in products such as meat, eggs and milk.
To change this, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which regulates animal feed and pet food in the country, first needed to approve it.
Efforts from the Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC) over years started to pay off with tentative approval of HSM for laying hens at the AAFCO Mid-Year Meeting in early 2024. This was followed by a successful vote by the full AAFCO membership some months later.
However, there were still hoops to jump through, including HSM being provisionally included the AAFCO Official Publication (OP). It’s at this point commercial adoption can commence in states where relevant regulators accept it for local use.
In another step forward, hemp seed meal (HSM) for laying hens has now been published in OP.
“This is real progress for hemp and animal nutrition,” states the organisation. “Challenges remain, but we’re committed to moving the industry forward.”
But the state bottlenecks remain.
“Despite this achievement, HFC and its members stress that the regulatory path to market for hemp feed remains riddled with bureaucratic obstacles,” says the HFC. “Because AAFCO’s approval alone does not grant automatic state-level acceptance, companies serving the feed market have been forced to navigate a cumbersome, state-by-state registration process.”
While the HFC is continuing to work with various regulators on removing barriers for feeding laying hens HSM, it’s also prepping its next application: hemp seed meal for ruminants such as cattle and sheep.
On a related note, last month we published research out of Oregon State University showing promising results from feeding cows spent hemp biomass.
