Four WATTAgNet blogs for the week ending October 5

From WATTAgNet:

Over the past week, WATTAgNet’s bloggers offered insights on animal rights groups’ view on the term “factory farms,” the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, anticipated negative margins for the broiler industry, and finding appropriate feed formulations for healthy and challenged animals.
1. Trans-Pacific Partnership -- Negotiators on October 5 approved an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, putting an end to more than five years of talks. However, as U.S. Congressional leaders have yet to approve the agreement, a whole new waiting period is about to begin.
2. Factory farms – Animal rights activists want to avoid the use of the term “factory farms,” saying it isn’t just “factory farms” that are bad for animals, but all farms.
3. Broiler industry economics – U.S. broiler margins have been profitable for most of the past four years, but Rob Murphy, senior vice president of Informa Economics, predicts that the broiler industry will dip into negative margins, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015 and running through all of 2016.
4. Feed formulations – Too often, “sensitive” feed formulations are over-fortified with nutrients and ingredients, which can make them ineffective. Research done at Kansas State University shows that healthy animals require relatively simple diets with high nutrient density, while challenged animals require complex diets that are intermediate in nutrient density.