An increasing number of Canadian livestock producers are moving away from animalÐbased feed ingredients despite the fact that it is still considered a safe and affordable feed option, says a leading animal nutrition expert.
Eduardo Beltranena, a pork scientist with Alberta Agriculture, said producers in Canada can still use spray-dried blood products and plasma, which are used in piglet production, as well as whole blood and tallow, which can still be included in feed rations.
“You can even feed blood meal to cattle. There is no ban on any of this, the market is just saying they don’t want it,” he said.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Nonetheless, producers are shying away from animal-based feeds partly in response to wary consumers and food retailers. Meat processing produces millions of tonnes of byproducts a year, which can be converted into a variety of products used in manufacturing and industrial applications.
Rendered fats and oils, for example, are used to produce cosmetics, lubricants, household products and pharmaceuticals.
But most of the material produced by renderers becomes blood products and meat and bone meal used in the livestock and pet feeds business.
Over the years, meat and bone meal prices have risen and fallen along with competing feed ingredient such as soybean meal, canola meal and field peas.
But since May 20, the market for meat and bone meal has disappeared, said Beltranena.
“It is a bargain that producers can’t afford, even if it makes them profitable when the market is against them and they are losing money,” he said.
Even before Canada confirmed a case of BSE in May, livestock producers were slowly turning away from animal-derived feed ingredients due to international market pressure and a growing consumer preference for animals raised on vegetable-based feeds.
Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada’s largest pork packers, has told hog producers that it will no longer accept pigs fed rations that include meat and bone meal beginning in 2004. And while the company said it is willing to pay for other desirable attributes in a carcass, it has also stated that premiums to cover more expensive vegetable-based diets are not in the cards.
Ontario Pork has put its members on notice that in March of 2004 it expects them to deliver pigs that have never eaten meat and bone meal.
The decision has not been supported by Manitoba, Alberta or Saskatchewan Pork, but those groups recognize that one of the nation’s largest buyers is sending a signal to all Canadian producers that meat and bone meal products are no longer acceptable to their customers.
Olymel, a Quebec-based pork producer with a large slaughter facility in Red Deer, will also require the meat it sources and processes to be free of meat and bone meal feeds.
That decision may not based on science, Beltranena said, but it is a decision that producers must respect.
To clear a March deadline, producers would need to stop feeding meat and bone meal to animals in the system by the second week in December.
According to an October 2003 study conducted by Alberta Agriculture, a hog feeder using rendered meat and bone meal would have a $4 per market hog cost advantage over a similar producer feeding soybean or canola meal.
That advantage could actually be closer to $6 per hog due to recent increases in the price of alternative feeds, said Beltranena.
- There are 27 rendering plants in Canada.
- Annually 2.6 million tonnes of slaughter house waste materials, dead stock, restaurant grease and fat, bone and fish materials are sent to rendering facilities.
- Rendering generates more than $400 million annually in Canada.
- Labelling requirements are designed to ensure that ruminants do not consume prohibited materials. The label on feeds containing meat and bone meal reads: Do not feed to cattle, sheep, deer or other ruminants.
- Feed manufacturers and renderers are required to take steps to avoid cross contamination by providing clear labelling, separate storage and dedicated equipment, or by thoroughly cleaning non-dedicated equipment.
- Federal inspectors do annual inspections of each rendering facility in Canada and issue permits if rendering facilities meet all regulations.
- Failure to comply with federal regulations can result in fines ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, jail time ranging six months to two years, or both.
- Tallow from the rendering process is used for a wide variety of livestock feed products. There is no restriction on its use in the hog and poultry industries.
- Meat and bone meal products derived from ruminants can only be used in non-ruminant feeds.
- Fish meal, poultry meal and blood meal as well as spray and freeze dried blood and plasma products are used in a variety of feeds.
Source: Alberta Agriculture, staff research
