equivalent period a year earlier. Turning to feeds for poultry, total production in Great Britain during
the first ten months of 2017 amounted to 3.41 million tonnes, 88,400 tonnes or 2.7 per cent more than in the equivalent period of 2016. Poultry feeds accounted for 35.9 per cent of total output of feeds, down from 36.3 per cent during the same months a year earlier. A large proportion of the increased output consisted of broiler
feeds, at 1.69 million tonnes, up by 58,100 tonnes or 3.6 per cent. Production of layer feeds, at 912,700 tonnes was also higher by 9,800 tonnes or 1.1 per cent. There was increased production of a number of other poultry feeds, including turkey and breeding rations. The only sub-sector showing a decline was in protein concentrates for poultry, at 4,700 tonnes down by 600 tonnes or 11.3 per cent. Production of feeds for sheep and lambs during the first ten
months of 2017 amounted to 690,800 tonnes, up by 36,900 tonnes or 5.6 per cent compared to the equivalent period of 2016 and constituting 7.3 per cent of total production compared with 7.1 per cent a year earlier. All sub-sectors saw increased production with the exception of compounds for breeding sheep which, at 273,600 tonnes, was down by 11,700 tonnes or 4.1 per cent. In contrast, there were substantial increases in the production of: breeding sheep blends, at 35,500 tonnes up by 14,000 tonnes or 65.1 per cent; compounds for growing and finishing, at 322,600 tonnes up by 30,400 tonnes or 10.4 per cent and growing and finishing blends, at 54,900 tonnes up by 4,700 tonnes or 9.4 per cent. Production of protein concentrates for sheep was lower during the first ten months of 2017, at 4,000 tonnes down by 1,100 tonnes or 21.6 per cent. There was an increase in production of miscellaneous feeds,
thought to consist largely of feed for farmed fish, at 376,800 tonnes up by 12,600 tonnes or 3.5 per cent. Production in Great Britain during November will have been made
available by the time that this issue of Feed Compounder is in the hands of readers on 11th
January, and will be covered in our e-letter. As regards Northern Ireland, the latest data available at the time
of writing is production of compounds, blends and concentrates in the province during September. Taking the first nine months of 2017, total production in Northern
Ireland amounted to 1,776,600 tonnes, 160,500 tonnes or 9.9 per cent more than in the first nine months of 2016. This constituted the highest total for the period in question since records were first kept in their present form in 1996 and comfortably outstrips the previous record of 1,712,000 tonnes established in the weather hit 2013 when, it will be remembered, temperatures were well below normal for the first six months of the year with March being a massive 3.3° C colder than the established average. A more detailed analysis will follow in the next issue of Feed Compounder.
OXFORD WITH GOVE After the Christmas and New Year festivities, the Oxford Farming Conference in early January often serves to bring us back to reality and this year was no exception. Day One kicked off on 4 January with a Politics Session. Perhaps inevitably, there was a little additional spice in this year’s conference in that DEFRA Secretary of State Michael Gove, was billed as one of the participants. This was, to say the least, significant in that it promised the first substantial indication since the referendum regarding the development of government thinking about post-Brexit British agricultural policy. Gove’s address to the conference, delivered on 4 January
2018 together with the assurance that the transcript of the speech was ‘exactly as it was delivered ’, contained a number of important pointers to the current direction of governmental thinking as regards Brexit. Following the inevitable joke about the Archers as to whether Brian Aldridge’s step-son, Adam, would be attending the Oxford Farming Conference, Adam replied wearily. ‘I think I’ll give it a miss this year. It’s probably going to be all about Brexit. I get enough of that at home.’ Having got that off his chest, Mr Gove observed that if the UK was going to make the most of the opportunities and challenges offered by Brexit, it was critical that the UK recognised that there was
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