“We need less feed intake, less manure, less emissions, because that is where the complaints are,” said Daniel Berckmans. “That means we must be more efficient in the core equation.”

That “core equation” is his way of adding up animal feed needs: base metabolism plus activity, plus thermal or environmental regulation, plus mental state, plus the production of meat, milk or eggs.

Berckmans is a biosystems researcher out of KU Leuven university in Belgium and the University of Tennessee. He was among the speakers at a July 10 forum on precision livestock farming at the University of Manitoba.

Energy used by the base metabolism — basic functions of life like keeping organs running — can be calculated through heart rate. Berckmans said there are at least six companies working on a commercially feasible way to measure that, and technology for horses is likely to debut this year.

Animal activity can be tracked through things like aggression monitoring. Berckmans cited his previous work on a seven-year project, which found that aggression in pigs could be detected by measuring the distance between the camera and the pig’s back, “because they jump up,” he said.

Research has also been done on the energy horses expend when frustrated versus when calm. Berckmans pointed to data outlining energy expended while a horse was running in a ring alongside energy expended by brain activity at the same time. The horse was shown a bucket of food. When the horse realized it wasn’t going to get the food, it became frustrated and began to expend more mental energy.

Infection and disease can also cut production and profit. Sensors can help localize infection in a barn, compartment or room, potentially reducing disease spread and antibiotic use. Berckmans noted technology that monitors and analyzes the sound of coughs in a facility.

“Precision livestock farming gives us the data,” he said.

It can then be used to measure how far an operation is from desired outputs and to design prediction-based controllers.

“That’s what we do for decades in airplanes, in making mechanical systems, electronic systems,” Berckmans said.

While there’s been lots of research into agricultural use of precision technology, very little has been implemented, he said.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has released their long-promised update to national feed regulations. Formally referred to as the “Feeds Regulations, 2024,” the final version of the framework was registered June 17 and published for public view July 3 in part 2 of the Canada Gazette.

“We’ve been waiting for this for over 14 years to get to where we are today,” said Melissa Dumont, executive director for the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada (ANAC).

The new requirements will be introduced gradually. Labelling rules and compositional and safety standards came into effect July 3, with a one-year transition period where industry can follow either the existing or new requirements.

Other rule changes were in force immediately. That included removing mink and foxes from the definition of livestock, approval and registration requirements, feed content standards, rules around feed for export, risk investigation procedures, record-keeping requirements and exceptions noted in both the Feeds Regulation, 2024 and the Feeds Act.

All other parts of the new rules will have a staggered rollout over the next 18 months, according to the CFIA website.

New complaint procedures, rules around recalls and packaging, regulations on imported feeds, traceability requirements and hazard assessments and preventative controls/control plans will be in the next wave, coming into force in June 2025.

Licensing requirements, export documentation, rules around import of a non-compliant feed and the new scope of livestock species will be some of the final parts of the regulations to come into force, slated for December 2025.

Industry in waiting

In 2010, ANAC approached the CFIA with a request to modernize feed regulations to be more in line with current industry realities.

There had been significant developments in animal nutrition knowledge, technology and customer requirements in the previous decades, industry argued, and it was time for the regulatory environment to catch up.

The 2024 regulations include a range of new and updated requirements touted to improve the safety of livestock feed, reflect international best practices, improve food safety and support innovation within the animal feed sector. The updated regulations will provide a transparent process for the approval and regulation of feed ingredients and feed products, the CFIA said.

“There are a lot of benefits that have come out of the new regulations,” said Dumont.

The previous regulations had last been reviewed in 1983, including nutrient minimums and maximums, and safety levels.

The new document is more flexible, allowing for easier change.

“One of the main things (about the new regulations) is that many of the documents are incorporated as reference. They’re still part of the law, they are referenced in the regulations, (but) they sit outside of the regulations. Through consultation processes, these documents can now be updated based on new science as it becomes available,” Dumont said.

Dumont said the new feed regulations will change some of the products that require authorization, which she said will increase focus on a safety and risk-based approach. She also expects they will improve trade opportunities.

Nutrient requirements have also gotten a modern polish.

“The minimum nutrient requirements were very old, and some of them actually required us to put too many nutrients in the feed,” Dumont said.

“The law was requiring us to do that. This has now given us that flexibility and it also takes, again, that risk-based approach by requiring feed businesses to have preventive controls in place, so to prevent risks and hazards as they occur, as opposed to dealing with them once they occur.”

Most farms will not be required to have preventative controls. That aspect of the regulations doesn’t apply to producers who produce non-medicated feed. Farms that mix medications into feed on-site farms will have to meet the regulatory standard, due to food safety concerns connected to medication residue in animals. If a farm has multiple species, is making their own feed and uses many different medications, it may need more complicated preventative controls.

“One of the changes is that we will be able to use veterinary health products in mixed feeds,” said Dumont. “If any company notifies veterinary health products to Health Canada and it goes through the process for approval, we will then be able to mix it in feed as long as it’s been approved for use in feed.”

It is Dumont’s hope that newly available tools will reduce the regulatory burden on producers. Much of that burden was not risk-based or food-safety-based, she argued, but simply hung on so long because regulations were so old.

Getting the word out

The CFIA has published guidance on the new rules. ANAC is also working with national producer groups to help them develop educational material for their producers.

The CFIA has scheduled two information sessions on the new rules: one in English on July 24 and another in French July 22.

ANAC also has their own voluntary certification program called FeedAssure, which meets the preventative control requirements in the regulations, Dumont said.

The post New Canadian feed regulations released appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Canadian Dairy Commission announced Monday that its 4(m) milk class has been updated to allow dairy processors to get the 4(m) permit price for buttermilk incorporated in making skim milk powder sold for animal feed, effective Feb. 1.

The class is also now updated to include liquid buttermilk for animal feed as an eligible permit product in the 4(m) milk class, up to the set limit, the commission said.

Eligible end-uses for products sold in the 4(m) class already include skim milk powder bought either for direct feeding to farm animals, or for blending and repackaging into a feed blend. The class also includes the animal feed blends themselves, to be sold for feed as-is.

The expansion allows for inclusion of liquid buttermilk, whether evaporated or not, for direct feeding to farm animals.

Companies registered in Canada and using SNF-type products to make feed and feed blends may be eligible for a 4(m) permit. The limit under the 4(m) permit program for animal feed is now up to 20,000 tonnes of skim milk powder-equivalent per year.

The commission had originally announced Dec. 24, 2020 that it was considering such an update to the 4(m) class effective for Feb. 1 this year.

Prices for SNF sold in the 4(m) class are updated monthly and posted online, the commission said, noting that 4(m) butterfat is priced at the same level as butterfat in class 4(a). — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The announcement comes amid rising global feed grain prices and tightening supplies, and as more companies work toward reducing the carbon footprint of their operations. Insects are seen as a sustainable alternative to fishmeal and other high-protein feeds.

The plant will produce 60,000 tonnes of animal feed protein annually from Hermetia illucens, a highly nutritional type of fly, along with 20,000 tonnes of oils for poultry and swine rations and 400,000 tonnes of fertilizer, the companies said in a release.

According to InnovaFeed, the insect is already endemic in Europe and is not considered to be a pathogenic or invasive species.

Construction of the facility at Decatur, about 230 km southwest of Chicago, is slated to begin next year, pending permits and approvals.

The facility will be built adjacent to ADM’s massive corn processing complex and will use corn byproducts as feed for the insects, as well as waste heat and steam from the corn processing plant. The collaborative scheme will emit 80 per cent less carbon dioxide than a stand-alone facility, the companies said.

“ADM Decatur’s corn-based co-products will be recycled locally to feed insects through infrastructure connected to the site. This production model will also allow InnovaFeed to use 27 MW of residual energy recovered from the ADM process, energy that was not previously recovered,” InnovaFeed said in a statement.

InnovaFeed also on Thursday launched an insect protein production site in Nesle, northern France, currently the world’s largest with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes of insect protein. It will ultimately feed the equivalent of 400,000 tonnes of fish, poultry and pigs.

The companies did not disclose how much they would invest in the Decatur project.

— Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume in Chicago and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Provincial forage and livestock specialists and members of applied research and forage associations host the series.

For more info and to register, go to the Alberta Agriculture website.

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The closures highlight the pain for global agriculture companies from the outbreak of African swine fever in China, the world’s top hog producer and pork consumer.

African swine fever, for which there is no cure and no vaccine, kills almost all infected pigs, though it does not harm people.

The disease has killed more than a million pigs in China since the nation’s first reported case last August, cutting demand for feed ingredients such as soymeal and pre-mixes, which are blends of vitamins and other nutrients sold by Cargill and other suppliers.

“This is not a six-month trend for China to recover,” Chuck Warta, president of Cargill’s animal nutrition and pre-mix business, said in an interview. “This is a 24-month, 36-month kind of resetting of the world’s population of animals.”

The outbreak accelerated closures of Cargill feed mills in coastal regions of China that were also prompted by a westward shift over the past decade of the areas in which livestock are raised, Warta said. Most of the facilities will not be re-opened even if China gets African swine fever under control, he said.

Cargill closed three feed and animal-nutrition plants in the second half of the fiscal year that ended on May 31, representing an approximately 150,000-tonne reduction in capacity, according to the company.

But Cargill still sees a bright future for its animal nutrition business in China, Warta said. The company said it is spending US$65 million to replace a pre-mix plant in Nanjing and is also buying land for a similar facility in Henan province.

“We’re idling some assets, but we’re shifting those resources into a different type of production that is more positioned to serve the market,” Warta said.

Cargill reported on Thursday that reduced hog feed demand in China, along with the ongoing U.S.-China trade war and flooding in the U.S. Midwest, led to a 41 per cent slide in adjusted quarterly profits.

For the first six months of 2019, China’s soybean imports dropped 14.7 per cent from the same period last year as African swine fever curbed demand for hog feed, Chinese customs data showed on Friday.

Expectations for China to boost meat imports after losing hogs has caused some livestock producers in exporting countries to feed animals longer so that they grow bigger, Warta said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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The tools (developed by the Alberta Beef, Forage and Grazing Centre) can help flag potential nutritional problems, and identify the comparative economic value of different feeds based on their quality.

Feed testing can prevent ‘sneaky production problems ‘ (such as poor gains or reduced conception caused by mineral or nutrient deficiencies or excesses); identify toxicity issues (caused by mycotoxins, nitrates, sulphates, or other minerals or nutrients); develop nutritionally appropriate rations; identify nutritional gaps that may require supplementation; identify opportunities to include diverse ingredients; and accurately price feed.

One of the tools is for evaluating feed test results.

While not intended for use in ration balancing, it can identify potential issues with individual feed ingredients.

Users first select the cattle class (backgrounding, replacements, mature cows or mature bulls) and then either the average daily gain (for backgrounding) or stage of production (for the other three classes). The weight of the cattle is entered in Step 3 and in the last step, the results of feed tests are entered.

The suitability of the feed is indicated by a colour-coded response. Green indicates that the nutrient is adequate to meet nutritional requirements. Yellow indicates the TDN requirements are within a range of plus or minus 2.5 per cent; within plus or minus five per cent for CP requirements; and 0.05 per cent below mineral requirements. Red indicates the feed does not meet animal requirements.

The second tool evaluates the economic value of feeds based on nutrient content.

It uses the current price of a reference feed (such as barley, canola meal, or another option chosen by the producer) and feeds that are under consideration.

For links to both tools and a full explanation on how to use them, go to beefresearch.ca for ‘Tool for Evaluating the Economic Value of Using a Single Feed.’

The post You’ve got your feed results — now what? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The quality of forage needs to be matched to the animal’s needs — and those nutrition requirements are going to change throughout the year.

And that’s why you should test your forages, say experts and groups such as the Beef Cattle Research Council.

“When feed grain prices are high, a high-quality forage can provide a lower-cost ration than a low-quality forage supplemented with a concentrate,” the council notes. “Failing to provide all the nutrition a cow needs due to low-quality forage can have animal health and performance consequences that directly impact cost of production including loss of body condition, dystocia, lower milk production, and delayed returning to estrous.”

Many factors — including the stage cut, fertilization, and grazing intensity — affect the ability of forage plants to provide digestible and absorbable nutrients.

That’s why forage testing is necessary, said Fito Zamudio Baca, forage and livestock program manager with the West Central Forage Association.

“It is the only way to accurately know feed quality — therefore assuring producers are meeting their herd’s different nutrition requirements the most economical way, and requiring less money to feed the cattle,” he said.

Testing should take place as close as possible to when the cattle are going to be eating the feed, and relying on old tests is a mistake, he said. That’s because rain and snow will cause nutrients to leach into the ground while moisture (either from when it was cut or improper storage) increases the odds of mycotoxins and mould being present.

“If we test last year’s feed and want to feed it this year, the feed is going to deteriorate,” he said. “If you rely upon last year’s results, I think you will be disappointed.”

No grabbing

How you sample the hay can also make a lot of difference.

“I do not recommend doing a ‘hand grab’ sample,” said Zamudio Baca.

A handful pulled out of just one bale means there won’t be a lot of leaf material (where the nutrients are stored) in the sample. As well, that method only produces a very small sampling of that hayfield.

Instead, use a hay probe.

“(With a hay probe) you can have a core sample, and sample 10 to 20 different bales. That will provide you with a more representative sample that will tell you more about the quality of the hay that you are going to feed.”

Samples should be put in large zip-top bags and labelled by field, especially if you are testing hay from more than one field. (Grouping bales by field will help ensure you know which bales correspond to which tests, Zamudio Baca noted.)

There are many labs to send the samples to, not only in Alberta, but across Canada. If you don’t have a nutritionist or someone to submit the tests to a lab on your behalf, talk to your local forage association, he added.

“It will have the forage probes and means to send it to a lab, and help you interpret the results.”

What to test for

Deciding what tests you want can also be challenging.

Many labs have their own specialized tests, or packages that group a number of tests together for certain types of animals. (For example, for dairy cows or horses.)

Zamudio Baca recommends checking for crude protein, dry matter, energy (total digestible nutrients/TDN or net energy of maintenance/NEm), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), and relative feed value (RFV — which is more of an equation). In addition, minerals should also be tested in the sample. For cattle these are the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, magnesium, and potassium.

Running a test for mycotoxins is a good idea if you are feeding high-moisture feed or hay from a previous year.

“If there are any doubts about the feed, we need to ask for a mycotoxin test on top of everything,” said Zamudio Baca. “If we spend another $25 on a mycotoxin test on each sample, but save five or six calves, then it pays for itself.”

The key numbers

Finally, you need to do more than glance at the results and then file them away.

“We need to check three to four things quickly on the feed results,” Zamudio Baca said.

Test results usually have two columns: ‘As Fed’ and ‘Dry Matter Basis.’ Focus on the dry matter basis, particularly the crude protein levels. A cow’s protein needs vary according to the production stage.

“Crude protein is a building block. The beef cow rule of thumb is 7-9-11. Seven per cent is good for mid-pregnancy, nine per cent is good for late pregnancy, and 11 per cent is good for after calving.”

Neutral detergent fibre (NDF) is another parameter to check on your feed tests.

“For high-quality feed, NDF has to be less than 40 per cent.”

Lastly, check for total digestible nutrients (TDN).

“We want to see a number less than 50 per cent,” said Zamudio Baca. “Those three are very crucial.”

When buying hay, relative feed value (RFV) is a quick way to assess quality.

“Quite often we don’t buy feed on quality, but focus on looks, smell, guessing the weight, and price,” he said. “With the RFV we can quickly determine what the quality of that feed is and pay accordingly.”

Once you know what you have in terms of quality, you can more accurately calculate how much you will need.

“We know a cow needs 2.5 per cent of her body weight of dry matter so you can calculate per head and for the whole herd,” said Zamudio Baca. “We need to also consider the environment and the waste and take that into consideration when you are going to feed the feed. Some waste can be up to 25 per cent.

“Once we quantify how much feed we need and we know the quality, the next step will be doing a ration.”

There are software programs available that will assist with ration balancing, he added.

But the bottom line is that forage testing boosts the bottom line.

“It costs between $20 and $50 for each sample (excluding mycotoxins). But the way I tell it to the producer is, ‘If you spend $100 a sample, save one or two calves, then you get more than double the money from that sample alone.’”

The post Put your forage to the test – and money in your bank account appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

This change is in response to antimicrobial resistance and the assurance of a safe food supply. It will also, I feel, be a positive step to further assure accuracy in milled feeds.

I think we have all had it happen — picking up the wrong bag of medicated feed or fiddling with water applications. The prescription gives one more document to double-check against and is a great prevention in misuse, overuse, and underuse of medicated feed.

Once again, the important piece here is that there is a relationship between you and your veterinarian as medical additions to feed and water will require a prescription.

Have you done this?

I can imagine in the fall run — or when the first set of chicks come in, the dog whelps, the gilts go lame, or coughing starts in the calf pen — that being without a veterinarian (and consequently a prescription) could get pretty stressful. If you have not talked to your vet recently or don’t have one, even the Easter bunny will be out on a limb. Take the pressure off yourself and do your stock a favour by getting that file in order.

What do you need to know about this change?

• More with Brenda Schoepp: When it comes to food waste, the system is broken

Veterinarians will have to work more closely with commercial feed mills as the mills cannot stock inventory specifically for you without a valid prescription. The vets are working under several acts here, including the Feeds Act and Regulations and the Food and Drugs Act.

This has been great for the mills as well, as they prepare to step up safety for the food system. Pop by your local feed mill and talk to them about how it’s going to work for them, who is going to handle that paperwork, and who to call when you are not sure of your prescription status.

To help maintain access to what is needed in times of crisis, it is valuable for the vet to know your past history of medical events in your companion or food animals or fowl, and why those events occurred. This helps determine probability for future use.

History can repeat itself in health events. It could be the time of year or the quality of feed, the velocity of the wind, or labour patterns around the farm. There are always contributing factors to health events. Talking about them early with your vet helps alleviate these questions when time is precious.

Your only access to medicated feed or medication for water will be through your veterinarian. It is now illegal for a feed mill or ag supply store to sell medicated feed without a prescription.

So if you are offered a truckload of short-dated medicated feed at rock-bottom prices, do not take it. That risks the relationship with the vet and a few federal acts, as well as making you party to something you really don’t have time or money for. I would however, let the vet know if someone tries to slide it onto your truck deck. Just saying: It’s a no go.

That prescription must include a full description of the animals and the dosage, the type of feed and amount, any cautions when using the MIA, the withdrawal time, name and quantity of drug, date, signature, directions for use, and number of refills.

Check it out as you should be able to get an electronic copy. If it is a pen of heifers that need treating, make sure it says heifers and not steers. Everyone has some responsibility here, and feel free to ask again about withdrawal times for food animals.

Although feed mills may have medicated stock on hand, it cannot be released to you without that signed prescription. Following up to ensure the document is received at the mill might save a lot of hardship.

It might be frustrating to find out the feed is sitting there, but you can’t take it home. The oversight and inspection of the mill has yet another layer of regulation. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is responsible for inspection of the feed mills.

So there are many bodies involved to ensure you have a prescription first. It would be an advisable thing to ensure the prescription is on file before asking for delivery or coming into town. One bag of medicated chicken feed or one ton of supplement — it makes no difference as it will be all by prescription only.

Safe food is everyone’s gig and although this will be a bit of a learning curve, it serves our consumers well as we offer another level of food safety assurance.

The post There’s a learning curve with new rules on medication appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Neovia is majority owned by French cooperative group InVivo. Investment group Eurazeo also has a 17 per cent stake.

The acquisition, first reported by Reuters, would make ADM a major player in the global animal feed industry, which the company says has sales of more than US$700 billion.

ADM and rival grain merchants such as Bunge and Cargill have struggled in recent years as a global oversupply of food commodities has made it tough to turn a profit on their core business: buying, processing, and selling corn, soy and wheat.

The companies have been diversifying into higher-margin sectors, such as food ingredients and aquaculture feed, to compensate for the poor returns.

“We were happy with our animal feed activities but it was too local,” Pierre-Christophe Duprat, ADM’s president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told Reuters. “If we wanted to expand we needed a more global approach.”

The acquisition would be ADM’s second largest to date after it purchased natural food ingredients company Wild Flavors for US$3 billion in 2014. Talks about a separate takeover of Bunge stalled this year, according to sources and media reports.

Neovia, which had sales of 1.7 billion euros (C$2.6 billion) in 2017, produces and sells a range of products related to pet care, aquaculture, livestock feed and other areas.

“If you’re management and your goal is to move away from the grain merchandising operations and the volatility that comes with that, this is the way to do it at a fair price,” said Seth Goldstein, equity analyst for Morningstar in Chicago.

Neovia has a limited presence in North America but a large one in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, with 75 per cent of its sales coming from outside Western Europe.

This complements ADM’s animal nutrition business, which is primarily in the U.S. and has growing exposure in China, according to Fitch Ratings.

ADM is the most U.S.-focused of the major grain companies and has been trying to expand its geographic footprint.

The transaction can “serve as a platform for additional potential bolt-on acquisitions to expand the firm’s geographical reach,” Fitch Ratings said.

New unit

ADM would divert its feed activities into Neovia’s to create a new unit, called ADM-Neovia, with combined sales approaching US$3.5 billion, Duprat said. The takeover would lead to a reorganization and a likely reduction in staff in France, he said.

ADM said the deal would offer run-rate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) synergies of about 50 million euros by the fourth full year after the transaction closes.

The target seems “adequately conservative,” JP Morgan analyst Ann Duignan said.

The deal would be 100 per cent cash and is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of the year after a consultation process involving employee representatives and pending supervisory authority approval.

InVivo, France’s largest cooperative group, would use one billion euros expected from the sale to step up investment in new farming techniques and support acquisitions in wine, CEO Thierry Blandinieres said in an interview.

In another sign ADM is seeking to diversify its portfolio, the company said on Friday it would pay 185 million pounds (C$320.6 million) to buy Probiotics International Limited, better known under its umbrella brand Protexin, a Britain-based maker of probiotic supplements for people and animals.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Tom Polansek; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris.

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