Adequate ration balancing is a crucial component of a dairy farm budget. Undetected nutrient deficiencies or excesses can have different and variable effects on cows’ performance and health. Nutrient content variability (inconsistency) of feed ingredients is frequently mentioned as a constraint by dairy producers and nutrition consultants.
Soybean meal from different origins
A study on the nutrient composition of soybean meal from the US, Brazilian, and Argentinian processing facilities was published recently in Animal Feed Science and Technology (GarcÃa-Rebollar et al., 2016). The researchers evaluated soybean meal samples obtained over 9 years (2007 – 2015) in the country of origin (50% of samples), or upon arrival of the shipment to Europe. Samples from the USA were collected from crushing plants located around the Mississippi river (96 samples) and the East Coast (36), or upon arrival to European ports (48) from vessels loaded in New Orleans. Brazillian samples (n=63) were collected either locally, mostly from feed mills in the states of Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo, or in Europe (n = 102) from cargoes originated in Paranaguá, Santos, and Ilheus, and unloaded in Brest (France), Hamburg (Germany) and Bilbao and Tarragona (Spain). Soybean meal samples (n=64) from Argentina were obtained from six different local crushing plants, or in Europe (n=106) upon arrival of cargoes loaded in Rosario and BahÃa Blanca, to the ports of MarÃn and Huelva (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), and Hamburg (Germany).
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