Nutritional value top influence on livestock feed choice

When it comes to livestock feed choice, quality and nutritional value has the greatest influence over on-farm decisions according to the latest results from an independent survey of more than 500 farmers commissioned by Trident.
Feed quality and nutritional value significantly influenced 81 percent of feed choices, and moderately influenced another 17 percent, making it a factor in 98 percent of decisions. Cost was a close second, with a significant influence over 67 percent of choices and a moderate influence over 30 percent.
The weather and growing conditions influenced (either moderately or significantly) 90 percent of decisions, while availability and choice affected 80 percent, and storage facilities 77 percent. More surprising, perhaps, was the 93 percent of feed choices influenced by convenience and ease-of-use, the 69 percent by British provenance and the 60 percent by environmental impact and sustainability.
“These latest results hint at a change of focus within the industry, as environmental factors become more important to both end consumers and producers, whilst staff managing ever greater numbers of livestock per person require feeding systems to be simplified,” said Trident national general manager Richard Cross.
“The issue of British versus imported feeds, along with the future sustainability of feed supply, is also one that has become increasingly important in recent years. The fact that 69 percent of feed choices are affected by whether the feed is British demonstrates just how much farmers would rather buy locally-produced feeds than imports if given the choice.”

Mycotoxin report studies global prevalence, regional breakdown

Biomin has released its report on global mycotoxin research for 2011, focusing on global prevalence with a region-by-region breakdown of the various mycotoxins most important to animal and agriculture production.
Seventy-four percent of the analyzed samples show the presence of at least one mycotoxin. The presence of more than one mycotoxin in 41 percent of the samples raises the attention to the problem of synergistic effects caused by multiple mycotoxins in animal feeds, said Biomin in the company's report.
The global occurrence of aflatoxins, zearalenone, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins and ochratoxin A were studied, with 4,327 samples taken from North and South America, Asia (South-East, South and North), Oceania and Europe (Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern) and the Middle East and Africa. Samples tested were diverse, according to Biomin, ranging from cereals such as corn, wheat, barley and rice to processing by-products such as soybean meal, corn gluten meal, dried distillers grains with solubles and other fodder such as straw, silage and finished feed.
Deoxynivalenol was the most common mycotoxin found (59 percent tested positive). Second-most prevalent was fumonisins (51 percent), then zearalenone (40 percent), aflatoxins (27 percent) and ochratoxin A (27 percent).

Avoiding mycotoxins in corn feedstock and DDGS

Fusarium species are responsible for most of the mycotoxin contamination of corn harvested with 14%-plus moisture values in 2009, according to Dr. Frank Jones, professor emeritus and extension specialist with the University of Arkansas. This corn was harvested in areas that experienced high rainfall before and during harvest, said Jones, who recommends that feed manufacturers conduct mycotoxin assays on feed ingredients, particularly DDGS (dried distillers grains with solubles).
Although fusarium molds produce a wide range of toxins, deoxynivalenol—also known as DON or vomitoxin—is the most commonly encountered. Poultry are relatively resistant to DON at dietary levels of up to 10 parts per million. Swine, however, are extremely sensitive and will exhibit feed refusal at a level of one part per million.
DDGS derived from affected batches of corn can show up to three times the concentration of toxins when compared with the corn feedstock. Accordingly, most of the ethanol plants supplying DDGS implement some form of quality control using assays.
Despite these precautions, feed manufacturers—especially those supplying swine herds—are advised to conduct their own tests on ingredients and finished feed using available test kits for DON, aflatoxin and other specific toxins, as requested by clients.
Jones recommends a composite sample of at least 10 pounds to determine the specific mycotoxin content, derived using the U.S. Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration recommendation of a single 12-foot probe from each railcar or 5- to 7.5-foot probes from a truck. This helps obtain a representative sample, since toxins may not be evenly distributed in consignments.