Japan may purchase less corn, more wheat to cut costs

Japan's livestock producers may purchase less corn as feed-wheat imports quadruple to the highest levels since 2001 on prices $50 per ton cheaper than U.S. corn, according to reports.
Wheat imports may reach 430,000 metric tons, from 112,000 metric tons in the year ended March 31, according to Ikuho Tomita, deputy director at the agriculture ministry's feed supply and demand planning office. Imports were at 473,000 metric tons in 2001. “Increased purchases of feed wheat means Japan’s corn imports will decline, as overall demand for feed grains isn’t growing,” said Tomita. Japan’s feed makers “are taking advantage of an expanded gap in purchasing costs between corn and wheat.”
Japan imported 169,318 metric tons of feed wheat in the nine months ending September 30, according to finance ministry data.

Nepal chicken demand down 20%

Demand for chicken in Kathmandu, Nepal, has dropped by 20% due to reports of bird flu in Bhaktapur and a shortage of supplies in the capital, according to reports.
The price of chicken has increased by Rs 15 (US$0.18) per kilogram, to Rs 185 (US$2.22) per kilogram, as a result. “The number of buyers has dropped by around 20%," said Janga Bahadur BC, president of Kathmandu Valley Chicken Sellers Association. "However, we are not in a position to lower the price because demand for chicken is still higher than the supply.” Daily consumption has dropped from 200,000 kilograms to 180,000 kilograms, according to city data.

JSR Genetics forms German pig breeding company

UK-based JSR Genetics has gained a new franchise contract in the form of a pig breeding company in Germany, JSR Hybrid Deutschland GmbH.
The contract, which includes both breeding stock and JSR technical support services, will see the new Ahaus-based company market JSR stock throughout Germany. “Using the JSR Genepacker and JSR Geneconverter lines we have selected GGP and GP gilts and boars to establish a nucleus and multiplier herd capable of generating up to 20,000 JSR Genepacker purebred GP and Genepacker 90 parent gilts a year,” said Paul Anderson, JSR’s international sales director.
According to JSR Hybrid Deutschland, JSR’s scientific approach to genetics was a key factor in the franchise decision, as was the level of technical support JSR could deliver to help producers improve performance and efficiency.

Efficient feed conversion vital to pig producers

Efficient feed conversion is the most important economic trait in pig production, according to geneticist Ed Sutcliffe, who spoke at a recent Northamptonshire Quality Pig Producers’ Association meeting.
Producers record numbers born and have a reasonable idea of growth rate, while backfat is measured for them when finished pigs are slaughtered, said Sutcliffe, but none of these is as important as feed conversion rate. Pointing out the relative importance of these factors, Sutcliffe, who is technical director of the pig-breeding company ACMC, demonstrated that an improvement of one standard deviation in feed conversion (equivalent to about 0.4 FCR points) could be worth as much as £18.52 per pig, assuming daily feed intake remained the same.
In comparison, one standard deviation in grading was worth £1.51; in daily gain, £9.46; and in numbers born alive, £5.91 per pig.
Sutcliffe said that getting accurate feed conversion figures can be difficult to do, particularly for swine producers with automatically fed pigs in continuous-flow, intensive buildings. “Everyone makes a conscious decision when to market pigs — generally as heavy as possible — but do they know how the FCR of their pigs differ through the growth curve?” said Sutcliffe. “A little effort is required, but measuring some pigs later in the growth curve would allow this to be considered and could surprise those pig producers not using feed efficient genetics about the lack of return at heavier weights." 

Russia poultry production to grow 10% in 2011

Russia's poultry production will grow 10.6% by the end of 2011, reaching 3.2 million metric tons and beating 2010 numbers by 300,000 metric tons, according to the country's Agriculture Ministry.
Poultry is the largest-growing segment of Russia's overall meat production, which is expected to hit 7.5 million metric tons by the end of 2011, 333,000 metric tons (4.7%) more than in 2010, said the Ministry. The country plans to reach its poultry output target in 2011, and its overall meat target within three to five years. It has already met targets for grains, potatoes, sugar and sunflower oil production, said the Ministry.

Turkey feed dietary adjustments may reduce nitrogen emissions

A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded study conducted at Michigan State University has shown that changes to the diets fed to turkey toms may reduce nitrogen emissions from grow-out farms without sacrificing meat yields.
Researchers from Michigan State University, the University of Maryland and Purdue University studied the effect of diets containing different concentrations of crude protein and different amino acid (AA) supplementations on nutrient retention and excretion by turkeys. They observed that decreasing dietary crude protein from 110% to 100% of the amount recommended by the National Research Council, and adding threonine to an AA supplementation of lysine and methionine, resulted in lower nitrogen excretion (by 12%) and a lower cumulative loss of ammonia (by 23%) when compared with diets containing only two supplemental amino acids. There were no differences in tom growth or feed conversion.  
The Environmental Protection Agency monitors emissions of air pollutants, such as particulate matter, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), under the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1990.  In 2005 the EPA announced an air quality compliance agreement to address emissions from certain animal feeding operations or AFOs.
“The goals of the 2005 EPA agreement include ensuring compliance with applicable CERCLA [Clean Air Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act] and EPCRA [Environmental Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act] provisions," said Dr. Zefei Liu, research associate at Michigan State University and one of the authors of the study. "Because some of these provisions carry hefty penalties for non-compliance, it is important for the poultry industry to continue to search for methods to monitor and control nutrient losses and air emissions from their operations. We hope that the findings of our study will contribute to this effort.” 
Details of the study were published in a recent issue of Poultry Science.

Grand River Foods sells fresh poultry processing division

Canadian company Grand River Foods has sold its fresh poultry processing division to poultry processor and supplier Maple Lodge Farms to focus on its ready-to-eat prepared foods business.
The Ontario division, which employs roughly 100 people, is scheduled to close at the end of January 2012. The sale will give Maple Lodge expanded access to fresh chicken for its processing business, and will provide Grand River with the funds it needs to invest further in its Cambridge prepared foods business, according to the companies.
Chicken Farmers of Ontario has provided the regulatory approval for the transfer. The deal is set to close on December 1.