By John Hart
North Carolina State University Agricultural Economist Dr. Nicholas Piggott continues to emphasize the importance of North Carolina producing more of its own feed grains to meet the demands of the state’s livestock industry.
It’s a message he recently delivered to the Ag Development Forum during the Southern Farm Show at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. The North Carolina feed grain deficit currently averages around 50 percent: That is the state must import about half of the grain needed to feed hogs, chickens, and turkeys in North Carolina while producing the rest within the state.
Estimates peg the need for feed for North Carolina hogs, chickens and turkeys at roughly 310 million bushels per year. In 2018, the state produced about 154,000,000 bushels of its own feed grain, importing the rest. Piggott says producing more feed grain locally is better for both North Carolina livestock producers and North Carolina grain producers. Efforts to increase North Carolina feed grain production was the reason the North Carolina Feed Grain Initiative was launched in 2012 with funding support from Smithfield Foods.
Source: ncsu.edu