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USDA Feed Outlook Release

Based on planting intentions from USDA’s NASS Prospective Plantings report and a weather-adjusted trend yield, corn production for 2015/16 is projected down 4 percent from 2014/15. The rapid pace of spring plantings—75 percent planted in the 18 major cornproducing States as of May 10 as compared to 55 percent in the previous year—is not expected to be a major factor in yield determination. Rather, summer weather has historically played a larger role in the variation in observed yields. Sorghum, barley, and oats production are projected to be up modestly for the 2015/16 marketing year. Sorghum exports in 2015/16 are anticipated to remain strong at 335 million bushels. Despite planting delays in Texas, early new-crop sorghum supplies are expected to be adequate to augment available 2014 oldcrop supplies and support the 2014/15 export projection of 350 million bushels.

World coarse grain beginning stocks for 2015/16 are forecast at 227.8 million tons, up 17.0 million from a year earlier and the largest in 15 years. The stocks increase swamps the 7.5- million-ton reduction in production, leaving global coarse grain supplies in 2015/16 up 9.6 million tons to a record 1,505.1 million. Global coarse grain feed and residual use is projected to increase a modest 1.6 percent in 2015/16 to a record 774.9 million tons. Growth in industrial use of coarse grains has slowed as biofuels produced from grain have become less fashionable and declining petroleum prices make them less economic. The increased 2015/16 use balances the increased supply, leaving world coarse grain ending stocks nearly unchanged from beginning stocks. However, more of those stocks are held in China.

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Source: USDA


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US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”