Wigglesworth
Helping feed the world
Feed and Feed Ingredients
What farmers feed domesticated animals especially livestock depends on a range of factors which could include the species and age of animal, the type of food produced - such as meat, milk or eggs, the price, availability, the use for the animal (e.g. race/workhorses, donkeys, etc.), the nutritive value of the feed, and geographical factors including soil type and climate where the animals are reared.
Animal feeds are classified as follows:
CONCENTRATES: These are high in energy value, including fat, cereal grains and their by-products (barley, corn, oats, rye, wheat), high-protein oil meals or cakes (soybean, canola, cottonseed, and by-products from processing of sugar beets, sugarcane, animals, and fish).
ROUGHAGES: These include pasture grasses, hays, silage, hulls, root crops, straw, and cornstalks. Hulls can also be used as sources of fiber in ruminant diets. Rice hulls are lower in value and nutrient content, while the others have better nutrient quality and are useful in maintaining mature animals when other feeds are in short supply, but they are still too low in nutrition to be a satisfactory feed for extended periods unless supplemented with other feeds that supply the protein, digestible energy, and minerals needed for growth and production.
FEED INGREDIENTS
They are products used in animal nutrition to improve the characteristics of feed, such as to enhance flavor, add more nutrient or to make feed materials more readily digestible. They are often used in large scale production.
They are grouped into ingredients providing energy (fats, oils, and carbohydrates), protein (amino acids), vitamins, and minerals. Cereal grains such as corn, wheat, and barley will be used to mainly provide energy. Soybean meal, extruded and expelled soybeans, canola meal, and poultry by-product meal is used in diets to mainly provide protein.
Within an ingredient, nutrient content can vary significantly from one supplier to the other. For this reason, it is important to determine the nutrient content of an ingredient by supplier. Nutrient content of an ingredient can also vary by season and year. Some of the available feed ingredients are:
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BEET PULP Sugar beet pulp is a highly digestible form of fiber that we source from processors across North America that will benefit many rations.
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CANOLA MEAL contains a high source of protein for the livestock feed and aquaculture industries.
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CORN GERM MEAL has a high-value protein and fiber content that makes it a preferred source of protein for swine, poultry and cattle feed.
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CORN GLUTEN FEED contains a high-energy value for use in dairy and poultry rations.
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CORNMEAL contains a high source of protein for the livestock feed and aquaculture industries.
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DDGS sourced from ethanol production plants across the U.S. and add a high nutritional value to livestock rations.
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MALT SPROUT PELLETS have high protein value, malt sprout pellets sourced from distillers and processors across the U.S. are a good energy source for ruminants.
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WHEAT MIDDS are the by-product of flour mills; wheat midds in all forms have a high nutritional value for livestock rations.
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COTTONSEED, whole cottonseed is an excellent supplement to poor quality grass hay for dry and lactating cows because it supplies both energy and protein in a single feed ingredient.
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COTTONSEED MEAL is a common source of protein in beef cattle diets and is usually cheaper than soybean meal. Cottonseed meal contains 45 percent protein on a dry matter basis and is an excellent source of supplemental phosphorus (1.2 percent).
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COTTONSEED HULLS are a very high fiber, poorly digested feedstuff used primarily as a roughage source in grain-based, high concentrate diets and as an intake regulator of high grain diets fed in self-feeders.
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ALFALFA MEAL/PELLETS High digestibility and relatively rapid ruminal passage of good quality alfalfa permit high inclusion levels in animal feed diets, including high producing cow.