In the south of the Netherlands, the demand for by-products will be lower in the coming winter season than last year, when the failed maize harvest boosted demand. But there is music in wet animal feed, which optimizes the mixed ration.
This trend started in 2013 when the Danish animal nutrition scientist Niels Bastiaan Kristensen showed that cows perform better when a mixed ration is supplemented with water, to a mash with a dry matter content of approximately 40%. About 4 years later, this method of rationing is also receiving a lot of attention in the Netherlands.
Fussy cows
Adding water does not make sense if you have by-products available. This is what suppliers of wet animal feed say. Now that the lecture season is starting again, one supplier after another is warning about fussy cows. This gives them the opportunity to snack on single mixed raw materials from the roughage ration at the feeding fence, which threatens rumen acidification for part of the livestock. It also causes malnutrition for the less resilient part. If this group hardly eats at the feeding fence and does consume concentrates, the risk of rumen acidification is extremely high.
Increase energy density
Adding water is not only a missed opportunity to increase the energy density of the ration, but it also increases the risk of heating. It is warmer in the Netherlands than in Denmark and there is also less wind inland. That is why suppliers of wet animal feed offer mixtures that increase the nutritional value, optimize the ration and also prevent heating. If desired, it is also possible to add minerals and vitamins.
It is important that the by-products are tasty and therefore increase absorption. However, the opposite is also possible. If the proportion of wheat yeast concentrate is too high, the milk may even taste abnormal. This also applies to many by-products.
Little movement in prices
The prices of the most important by-products show little movement. This despite the start of the harvest season for potatoes, sugar beets and corn. This has to do with the contracts with which most of the wet animal feed is supplied. Potato by-products and brewer's spent grain hold their prices, beet pulp tends to fall (further) in price.
The market for fresh silage maize is in uncertainty (what effect will last week's storm have on the abundant supply?). The first estimates assume a 10% loss of yield and an increase in costs due to extra labor time during chopping.