As we enter the complex world of animal production, the interaction between productivity and animal nutrition becomes ever more important. Feed is a critical factor that significantly impacts animal health and performance, as well as farm profitability. Supplying agricultural raw materials that make up feed is becoming extremely difficult with climate change, while their costs are rising significantly. When the safety and hygiene issues faced by these raw materials are added to the supply challenges, the issue of profitability for farmers becomes an even more complex equation.
This complexity limits farmers’ ability to provide their animals with a healthy and balanced ration, and can sometimes lead them to switch to less nutritious, lower quality alternatives or to use less feed per animal. In both cases, the overall health and performance of the animals is negatively affected, putting the profitability and sustainability of the farm at risk.
This situation causes farmers and other stakeholders across the animal nutrition sector to re-evaluate their strategies to manage costs and optimize animal performance and feed utilization.
Today, experts recommend several ways to manage feed costs without sacrificing animal performance. The first is the diversification of feed raw materials. Switching to different raw materials can help reduce costs. For instance, using locally available and cheaper resources. With the right feed additives, these ingredients can make up nutritious, healthy and more cost-effective feed for animals.
Optimizing feed use and precise nutrition is another important recommendation. Farmers can both monitor their animals’ feed consumption to avoid unnecessary waste and adjust the ration according to the age, gender and production stage of their animals, ensuring that each animal is fed according to its own needs.
Particular attention can also be paid to the quality of the feed when monitoring. This is because it is known that low-quality feed ingredients can often be cheaper. However, these cheaper ingredients can negatively affect the health and productivity of animals. Therefore, monitoring feed quality and finding an appropriate balance is another important recommendation.
In this month’s issue, experts from the animal nutrition industry discuss many other strategies on how to optimize animal performance, feed quality and feed costs to maintain farm profitability in today’s challenging conditions.
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Hope to meet you in the next issue…
