University offers feed management course

A one-week practical short course on aquaculture feed extrusion, nutrition and feed management will be presented on September 22-27, 2013, at Texas A&M University by staff, industry representative and consultants.
This program will cover information on designing new feed mills and selecting conveying, drying, grinding, conditioning and feed mixing equipment. Current practices for preparing full-fat soy meal processing; recycling fisheries' by-products, raw animal products and secondary resources; raw material; extrusion of floating, sinking and high-fat feeds; spraying and coating fats, digests and preservatives; use of encapsulated ingredients; preparation of premixes; nutritional requirements of warm-water fish and shrimp; feed managements; and least-cost formulation are reviewed.
Practical demonstration of sinking, floating, and high-fat aquafeed, are demonstrated on four major types of extruders (dry, interrupted flights, single and twin screw), using various shaping dies. Other demonstrations include vacuum coating and lab analysis of the raw material for extrusion. Reservations are accepted on a first-come basis. For more information, programs and application forms, contact Dr. Mian N. Riaz or register via the Texas A&M website.

Texas A&M offers short course on feed

Texas A&M University will present a one-week practical short course on "Aquaculture, Feed Extrusion Nutrition and Feed Management" September 26 to October 1, 2010 on the university’s campus.
The program will encompass designing feed mills, selecting equipment, processing full-fat soybean mill, recycling fishery by-products and preparing aquaculture diets. For more information contact Dr. Mian N. Riaz at (979)845-2774 or mnriaz@tamu.edu.

International feed manual to be released

The International Feed Industry Federation and the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations will release a new international feed manual at the Third Global Feed and Food Congress in Cancun, Mexico, April 20-23, 2010.

Grain, feed groups recommend OSHA retain grain-handling safety rules

The National Grain and Feed Association has urged the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to retain its existing grain-handling facility standard, and to exempt grain elevators, feed mills and grain processing plants already covered by those regulations from its planned development of a comprehensive combustible dust standard.
The association's statement, developed in collaboration with the American Feed Industry Association and Pet Food Institute, was submitted in response to OSHA's October 21, 2009, advance notice of proposed rulemaking, in which the agency signaled its intent to develop a broad, comprehensive combustible dust standard that would apply across different industry sectors.
The National Grain and Feed Association noted that OSHA's own regulatory review in 2003 determined that the grain-handling standard should continue without change. Fire and explosion incidents in grain-handling facilities have declined by 65%, as measured in five-year increments since 1976, according to the association. Meanwhile, the reduction in the number of injuries and fatalities has declined 86% and 94%, respectively. This improved safety record occurred even as the volume of grain being handled by U.S. facilities increased by nearly 60% over the same time span, the statement said.
The association attributed the progress to a combination of governmental safety rules and an extensive $3.5 million industry research program that discovered the causes of and developed new techniques for controlling fire and explosion risks, coupled with ongoing education and training efforts.
The statement to OSHA opposed modeling a combustible dust standard after voluntary standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association, which do not evaluate practical implementation or cost impacts, and do not permit broad public participation in their development, according to the feed group. The statement said that the National Fire Protection Association’s potential recommendation of a 1/32-inch or less action level for combustible dusts, compared with the 1/8-inch standard now applicable to grain dust in priority housekeeping areas around bucket elevators, would increase compliance costs by several fold without materially contributing to improved safety.

Cambodia could become an Asian maize belt

When we asked feed manufacturers in Vietnam where their ingredients might be sourced in future, among their replies was a recommendation to look at what is happening in Cambodia regarding grain supplies. The southern part of Vietnam shares a long border with Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City is only about 400 kilometres from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. What is more, the Mekong River runs through both countries.
Cambodia is already cited by Vietnamese executives as an example of what can be achieved to promote better drying and storage arrangements for harvested crops, due to the success of a private-sector initiative on this theme. But an even greater attraction for Vietnam’s feed manufacturers is Cambodia’s potential to be a regional breadbasket supplying much-needed grains.

Capable of becoming big producer
Several thousand metric tons of Cambodian maize, cassava and soybeans have already been exported for use in feeds in Thailand as well as Vietnam. Much more could follow. Compared with a current grain production in the range of 2-4 million metric tons per year, Cambodia is said to be capable of producing 10-20 million metric tons annually if the right investments are made.
The most obvious financing currently has been with money from Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China and Korea for ethanol production from cassava. Their focus on the Cambodian provinces of Battambang, Kompong Speu and Kompong Cham overlaps the main corn-growing areas which are in Battambang, Pailin and Banteay Meanchey.
During the dry seasons of 2008 and 2009, according to a report from Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, the three provinces together grew red corn on 114,343 hectares, yielding 502,798 metric tons. This corresponded to 90% of the country's total production of 561,584 metric tons.

100,000 hectares suitable for maize
The director of Battambang’s provincial department of agriculture was quoted by the Phom Penh Post newspaper at the end of 2009 as saying the province had about 100,000 hectares of land suitable for growing maize. The farmers would use more of it for this purpose once they were sure they could find a customer for the grain.
The view from Vietnam is that Cambodia in total has 5 million hectares of arable land and the valuable possibility of using the Mekong River for irrigation and transport. Good climatological conditions should allow several million tons of maize, cassava and soybeans to be grown easily. Exported grain could simply be loaded into large barges to travel down the Mekong for delivery to the south of Vietnam

Turkish mills face feed ingredients shortage

Mills in Turkey expect to run short of some key feed ingredients in the next four to six weeks because of the country's decision to ban the importation of all food and feed products containing genetically modified (GM) components, says U.S. Grains Council (USGC).
Joe O’Brien, USGC regional director in the Middle East and subcontinent, said feedmillers and livestock producers are running out of feed, especially corn and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). No progress had been made to reverse or amend Turkey's additional requirements on imports with a GM content. The council said those involved in the import and use of the products are still waiting for the outcome of a court case filed shortly after the regulations were announced.
"Meanwhile, there are vessels near the region that are not able to come into port to deliver essential feed ingredients only available through exports and are circling the area or consigning the cargo into costly bonded facilities, driving up costs," O’Brien said.
Prices for alternatives to corn and DDGS have rapidly increased threatening a standstill in the industry, USGC said. Local feedmillers are banding together to present their case to government officials, commissioning their own scientific research to counter claims that have been made.

European feed tonnage drops in 2009

Feed output may fall 4-8%, according to executives at FEFAC and SPACE shows. Read the full article.

Price volatility management strategies

Managing a feed company during extraordinary prices swings like those seen in 2008 and early 2009 is no easy task.
John Scheuers, vice president of feed operations for United Cooperative, based in Beaver Dam, Wis., says the overall key ingredient to successful management when prices yo-yo on a daily basis is to pay attention to detail.
“There were times when we changed prices daily on our feeds instead of weekly,” Scheuers says. “We went to a daily price concept as we made our way through the volatility.”
He and his cooperative, which serves mostly dairy producers in south-central Wisconsin, also paid closer attention to risk management.
“We took smaller positions more often rather than larger positions less often,” he says. That gave United Cooperative more flexibility and helped it cost-average in and out of the various grain and oilseed markets.
“In such volatility you are either on the right side or the wrong side of the market,” Scheuers notes. “Taking smaller bites helps spread out risk.”
On the feed side of the business, United Cooperative buys basis and manages for basis versus doing a lot of hedging or position taking, while the grain side of the cooperative takes more positions in the futures markets.

Dairy industry struggling
With the dairy industry in one of its deepest and longest slumps in years, volatility has also hit the co-op through sales.
“People have cut back on volume and on the level of nutrition being fed. They are in survival mode versus thriving mode,” Scheuers notes. “That affects income, so we’ve become more cost sensitive in the operations of the company.”
Overall, both producers and those in the feed industry have become more conservative since the 2008 commodity bubble popped.
Buyers want shorter contracts, and in general livestock producers are living more hand-to-mouth with their feed needs.

Germany introduces 'without gene technology' logo

The minister for agriculture of the Federal Republic of Germany has introduced a standard logo to be applied to foods free of GMO ingredients, according to a news report.
The intent of the logo is to create "more freedom of choice and enhancement of transparency." It may be difficult to use in practice and will have limited application.
Currently, a label "without gene technology" is applied to food products which were produced only with conventional GMO corn or soy but incorporate vitamins, enzymes or other additives possibly derived from genetically modified organisms.
The present "without gene technology" label is seldom used as it is virtually impossible for a manufacturer to confirm that all the ingredients used to produce a livestock-derived product are free of any GMO component.

How reduced cereal grain quality impacts feed

All grains produced locally in Saskatchewan, Canada this year are at risk for frost, and if not frost, sprouting because of the late harvest due to an exceptionally cool growing season. But feed grains that producers buy that may have been frozen, harvested immature or sprouted, may provide an opportunity as these crops can provide good feed quality for pigs, says Dr. Denise Beaulieu in Farmscape.
"Using and being on the lookout for low-quality grains is a good option for producers. Using byproducts and alternative crops is another way that they can decrease their feed costs," said Dr. Beaulieu, a research scientist with the Prairie Swine Center.
The scientist states that freezing and or sprouting of grains doesn't always decrease feed quality as such grains can be a very good source of both energy and protein for pigs. But that said, producers need to be looking for mould and mycotoxins, particularly if the grain is harvested immature or wet. As a result, she recommends that grain be tested.
One of the major challenges in using damaged grain, Dr. Beaulieu says, is that its digestibility is difficult to predict. "Looking at predictive equations will be something that we are looking at in our research to see if they are applicable to this year's crops," she says in the article.

New Web site for Ohio farmers

Ohio Farmers Feed the U.S. has launched a Web site to promote the states agricultural production. It offers visitors a virtual tour of egg, turkey, dairy and soybean farms, and texts regarding individual farmers.
To encourage a review of the site, Farmers Feed the U.S. is offering a competition with a 12- month supply of groceries as an incentive.
The site is sponsored by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the Ohio Livestock Coalition, the Ohio Poultry Association and five other agricultural commodity groups in the state.

Arsenic compound in chicken affecting Americans

The arsenic compound roxarsone, which is frequently added to chicken feed to fight parasites and increase growth, is a Class A carcinogen linked to heart disease, diabetes and declines in brain function, according to a report in The Washington Post.
Though the industry has been using roxarsone since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration in 1944, it seems to have little effect except raising the blood count. The meat, thus pinker, appeals more to the customer.
Similarly, the arsenic additive fuels angiogenesis in human cells, which might lead to cancer. Chicken growers have also reported illness from contact with roxarsone while preparing feed. EU outlawed the use of arsenic in chicken feed in 1999. Though several producers like Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms have responded, more than 70% of over 9 billion broiler chicken produced annually in the U.S. are fed roxarsone.

Panel to examine use of alternative feed ingredients

Learn from three industry experts about the opportunities and pitfalls involved in the use of alternative feed ingredients in a presentation at the 2009 International Poultry Expo and the International Feed Expo Thursday, January 29, at 8:45 a.m.
In a WATT-sponsored panel, “Impact of alternative ingredients on poultry feed cost and quality,” experts will discuss the choice of alternative ingredients and how they impact costs, feed mill throughput, pellet quality and flock performance. The presentation will be held from 8:45 a.m. until 10 a.m. at the Georgia World Congress Center in Room C109.
The event will open with a survey of alternative poultry feed ingredients presented by the University of Georgia’s Dr. Nick Dale. This will be followed by an examination of the effect of alternative ingredients on feed milling and pellet quality by Dan Rollins, Aviagen’s feed production director, Dr. Tom Frost, Wayne Farms’ nutrition director, will then look at the impact of alternative ingredients on flock performance and profitability, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
The WATT seminar is free to IPE/IFE attendees.