Year after year, month after month, a trend is emerging: Human demand for animal products is increasing day by day. More milk, more eggs, more meat are required by the population.
During the past 15 years, the oil price rises. Because of this trend, few countries have chosen to dedicate a part of their grain production to the bio ethanol production. Less surface is available to feed our population and our livestock.
These two reasons explain a part of the feed prices increasing (dairy, poultry, and aquaculture) .
Unfortunately for the livestock industry, most of the food products prices have not followed the same trend as that of the grain prices. Prices for milk, eggs, meat paid has not changed: Margins are reduced for farmers.
Two keys solutions appear to be the best solutions for farmers and feed millers to maintain their profitability:
To improve animal productivity :
- by controlling fertility, farmers should feed less animal for a same production,
- by controlling all kind of infection, animal metabolism is focused on production (better feed conversion ratio…)
- To source cheapest raw material available for animal feed: Processing plant by-products for example.
- A particular attention should be applied for these new raw materials qualification in order:
- to avoid nutritional problems
- to avoid sanitary crisis as BSE in UK during the period 1980/2000.
- Maybe some industrial processes need to be adapted to make interesting protein and energy sources available that are not yet used by feed mill industries.
Among most progressive indian farmers and Feed-Millers, such associations as PDFA have already implemented some researches and field applications.
For example, in 2014, Punjab Dairy Farmers Association (PDFA) and Progressive Dairy Solutions Ltd. (PDS) have chosen a new solution using nanotechnologies developed by a European Research Program to increased animal performances and reduced feed cost.
Nanotechnologies helps farmers to control Feed Quality and Safety, and so on, to increase the profits.
Fabien GUILLARD, Olmix India
