in 2011 fell by 83,000 tonnes, a decline of 2.6 per cent. In volume terms, the major contributor to the decline was
output of layer feeds, down by just over 61,000 tonnes or 5.9 per cent. There were also falls in the output of all other poultry feed sub-sectors with the exception of broiler feeds which were up by 17,600 tonnes or 1.5 per cent. It is, however, the sharp fall in layer feed output which catches the eye. An immediate question is whether there was a reduction in the number of birds requiring to be fed. There appears to have been a small reduction in the numbers of birds in the English layer and pullet flock amounting to a reduction of around 1.3 per cent 2011 on 2010 but, following DEFRA’s changes to their statistical coverage, it is impossible to draw firm conclusions. Another consideration is, of course, that 2011 was the year prior to the introduction of the battery ban but it is difficult to make a direct connection between the introduction of the ban and the sharp reduction in the volumes of layer feeds. It is also interesting to note that the integrated poultry sector
also saw production of layer feed fall in 2011 compared to 2010. Although the volumes concerned are much smaller (layer feed production in the integrated sector was 198,200 tonnes in 2011) there was a similar pattern of decline with production falling by 16,000 tonnes or 7.5 per cent compared with 2010. But it was in sheep and lamb feed production where the
weather would seem to have exerted its maximum effect on production of livestock feed.
Output in 2011, at 703,800 tonnes, was 91,100 tonnes or
11.5 per cent down on 2010. There were just two months where output of sheep and lamb feeds was higher than in 2010 and they accounted for 1,500 tonnes of feed. The first five months of the year contributed a deficit of 63,700 tonnes relative to 2010. Production in August 2011 was a quarter lower than a year previously. And if mild weather has anything to do with the outcome, whereas production in November 2011 was 1,100 tonnes or 2.6 per cent down on a year earlier, production in December 2011 was 16,100 tonnes or almost 20 per cent lower than a year earlier. As for other species’ feed, production in Great Britain of horse
feeds, at 173,200 tonnes, was down by 23,300 tonnes or almost 12 per cent on the levels of 2010. It does not appear to be entirely a weather-related result in that production of horse feeds in 2011 was at a twelve-year low. However, it will be noted by those in the industry with an interest in horse feeds that production in November and December 2011 was between 18 and 19 per cent lower than the same months of 2010 and the warmer weather combined with those cosy little winter coats may well have been responsible. Altogether, not a bad year in volume terms, given the much
more favourable weather that characterised 2011 compared to its predecessors in 2009 and 2010. When feed price data becomes available for the last quarter of 2011, it will be possible to assess the financial effects in a future issue of Feed Compounder. Watch this space.
S... DOES!
d a little extra cream?
s a little extra cream?
ximise herd potential.
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