Sept. 18, 2009 – It is a well-known fact that feed cost is a major portion of the total production cost in commercial poultry farms all around the world. The feed market has become a lot more volatile over the past few years and prices have been rising. There is also a strong competition between food (i.e. human sector) and feed industries for using available resources which makes things more complicated. This situation has increased production cost and put a lot of pressure on poultry producers.
Although combination of corn and soybean meal is usually considered as gold standard (from nutritional standpoint), wheat and barley are also being used in poultry rations in different parts of the world including Europe, Canada, and Australia. There is currently a tendency in the poultry industry to move toward the use of alternative feed ingredients with this hope that it may help to reduce production costs.
Cost and local availability are two major determinants when it comes to the use of alternative feed ingredients in poultry rations. Another important issue in this regard is the lack of well-established information on the nutritive value of these ingredients which can make diet formulation difficult.
What do you think?
References:
1- Dale, N. 2008. Alternative feed ingredients: an option to combat high feed prices? The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service.
2- Leeson, S. 2004. Future challenges in poultry meat production. Pages 1-7 in Interfacing immunity, gut health and performance. Tucker, L. A. and J. A. Taylor-Pickard., ed. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, UK.
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