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Huge increase in price of concentrates
By Joe Sheehy
There has been a huge increase in the price of concentrates, and this situation is likely to get worse.
For decades, maize by-products such as corn gluten and distillers have been the mainstay of our ruminant rations, but due to the risk of contamination with new genetically modified maize crops, which have been approved in the US but not yet in the EU, shippers will not take the chance to bring them to the EU.The Irish authorities are no help in this regard, as they generally go along with the EU snail’s pace of approving the GM products that are already approved in the US and other parts of the world.
Combined with large US ethanol demand for maize, and a general world scarcity of cereals, the short-term outlook is for very high prices for concentrates.
To make matters worse, protein sources have become very scarce and expensive. Coupled with a drop in milk price, this is bad news — the milk price weakness is only a price volatility blip rather than a more long-term difficult situation.
Despite the high price of concentrates, dairy farmers have to feed them. The consequences of not doing so when required are very serious.
For example, there is well proven evidence of infertility rates of 33% where adequate concentrates were not fed in early lactation and during the breeding season.
Inadequate concentrates (as well as grass quality) also contribute to big losses due to about half of heifers not calving under 30 months, or beef animals not being finished under 30 months.
The first and best opportunity to reduce the cost of concentrate feeding is by growing and utilising as much quality grass as possible, which has become more valuable than ever.
Reliable studies indicate that grass could be improved by 20% on our better farms, and by 50% on most farms.
As has been mentioned so often in this and other advice sources, this can be achieved by more reseeding, proper fertilisation, and correct grassland management.
Farmers that are not overstocked should be able to bale a lot of surplus paddocks. If they are cut at a young stage, this silage should have a feeding value close to concentrates, and can replace much of the concentrates in many situations.
Maize, fodder beet, kale, etc, are options for some farmers, especially for winter milk. The worst option is to under-feed animals, and unless better use can be made of farm-grown grass and other crops, there is a risk of under-feeding.
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