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The 2020 Alltech Global Feed Survey* estimates that international feed tonnage in 2019 decreased by 1.07% to 1.126 billion tonnes, due largely to African swine fever (ASF) and its negative effects on pig feed output in the Asia-Pacific region and China. However, healthy growth was seen to come from the layer, broiler, aqua and pet food sectors.
Alltech has released the results of its 2020 Alltech Global Feed Survey, which found that international feed tonnage decreased by 1.07% to 1.26 billion metric tons of feed produced last year, according to a release from the company. It asserts that this was due largely to African swine fever (ASF) and the decline of pig feed in the Asia-Pacific region. It is the first time in the nine years that the company has conducted the survey that there has been a decline.
African swine fever has taken its toll on international feed production. According to the 2020 Alltech Global Feed Survey estimates, global pig feed tonnage was down 11% in 2019. The primary producing region for pig feed remains Asia-Pacific, but that region also exhibited the largest decline at 26%, with China (-35%), Cambodia (-22%), Vietnam (-21%) and Thailand (-16%) experiencing large decreases.
Given that consumers get a steady diet of stories about the problems facing agriculture, a positive message appears to be welcome, said Alltech president Mark Lyons. “Agriculture has the greatest potential today to shape the future of our planet,” he said at an Alltech breakfast organized during the Banff Pork Seminar. The challenge is to produce enough food for a growing population while caring for food animals and protecting the environment.
After 2019’s harvest, high levels of mycotoxins have begun to crop up in animal feed and forage across North America, with likely ties to last year’s delayed harvest and wet weather.
Despite initial data suggesting this year’s crop may have evaded predictions of widespread contamination, pockets of high levels of contamination have begun to appear in samples analyzed by Alltech, according to a technician with the company’s mycotoxin management team.
Compost-bedded pack barns have grown in popularity in many areas of the world as an alternative to stall-based housing systems for dairy cows. Compost-bedded pack barns are loose housing barns that rely on composting manure and organic bedding to provide resting space.
Variable weather conditions across the Prairies could cause problems with mycotoxins in feed this winter.
The No. 1 most influencing factor in mycotoxins is weather,” said Max Hawkins of Alltech’s mycotoxin management team. “Weather determines which moulds we’re going to have, the amount of those moulds, and those moulds determine the variety of mycotoxin.”
Mycotoxin levels were low in early samples of feed harvested in Western Canada. Then things changed.
Toxin levels are largely driven by weather, said All-Tech feed expert Dr. Max Hawkins. Rain in the later harvest season across much of the West opened the door and mycotoxins inched their way in.
If you want your employees to stick around for a while, improving your internal culture can only take you so far. Jorge Delgado, training and talent development lead for Alltech T²R Program, says external culture is critical.
As more and more agricultural workers come to the U.S. from foreign countries, external culture is becoming increasingly important. People want to feel close to their community and sometimes that is challenging.
The labor crisis facing agriculture is complicated, but experts say the solution doesn’t have to be. Could developing a team that’s in it for the long haul be more about creating a great work culture and less about implementing more benefits and higher wages? Working in agriculture isn’t easy, says Jorge Delgado, training and talent development lead for Alltech T²R Program.
