Industry can be a very wasteful process. And such is our current day consciousness (born of the hangover of decades or waste and misuse) that we have concerns over the future sustainability of life because of how much we’ve destroyed through such processes. So any chance to reuse or recycle is embraced as wise.
In the case of poultry farming, especially as pressured by rising costs in cereal-based raw feed ingredients, our resourcefulness is challenged, once again, to find viable and safe alternatives to traditionally manufactured commercial feed. And an obvious place to search is amongst the waste or ‘by-products’ of other agricultural industrial processes.
The agri-value chain presents a wealth of opportunities to tap into viable feed alternatives for poultry.
Just think of the many, many processes involving a variety of cereals (wheat, corn, barley, soya…for example), which lead to by-products that still hold decent nutritional value in an acceptable form that poultry livestock would benefit from…
- Brewery, distillation and fermentation
- Food manufacture
- Biofuel manufacture
- Hospitality
etc.
All of these present opportunities to repurpose viable ingredients as alternatives to commercial feed.
But as with any alternatives analysis or trade-off, to give a green light, we’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons (answering the ‘What ifs’):
Pros of adopting industry by-product utilisation as an alternative poultry feed:
- Potential raw ingredient cost savings
- Nutritional variation
- Locally sourced and abundant
Cons of adopting industry by-product utilisation as an alternative poultry feed:
- Requires assessment for safety and nutritional value
- Inconsistency of quality
- Inconsistency of availability
- Logistics including storage
- Self-processing i.e. converting it into palatable poultry feed
- Variability
- No control over your supplier’s handling of ingredients
By taking these into account and counting the cost of DIY vs. commercial feed – you’re decision either way at the very least is well considered.
Having sights firmly set on feed conversion and profitability as unwavering goals, the rest allows for some creative license.
Nice insight into the hidden cost of rapid poultry growth. Fast-growing breeds like Ross 308 may reach market weight in weeks, but often suffer serious welfare concerns.