June 11, 2007

Rising feed costs spur US pork producers into action
 

US pork producers have banded together to seek new ways to control their feed costs, which have been rising amid increased corn demand from the ethanol industry.  

The National Pork Board (NPB) has approved US$400,000 for the development of a swine nutritional efficiency and education consortium to unite domestic pork producers.

Funded by checkoff (US$0.40 per US$100 value of live hog sold) through the pork checkoff programme, NPB will conduct research on ways to raise nutritional efficiency in swine production without relying solely on feeding ethanol by-products to the animals.

Specifically, the consortium seeks to maximise pork production efficiencies through improved feed conversion and optimised feed costs. Besides examining improved feed technologies and lower-cost feed ingredients to help lower feed costs, the consortium will also develop research programmes to study nutrient utilisation in pigs. Additionally, research on optimising the use of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a by-product of ethanol production, is expected.

Meanwhile, Pioneer Hi-Bred has announced that it would cooperate with the consortium to achieve the above goals, by providing it US$25,000 in financial support and an in-kind contribution of US$50,000 for collaborative research trials conducted at the Pioneer Livestock Nutrition Center.