Meeting demand sustainably

Sustainable livestock production should be about animal welfare, the environment and profits.

Meat consumption in Europe and the world has come a long way since times when the tasty morsel was a rarity reserved for special occasions. Gone too are the days when meat was preserved mainly by smoking, drying or curing as a necessity to tide families through the cold winter months.

Today's consumers have a whole range of choices in terms of meat cuts, processed products and packaged convenience. Despite the population explosion in the last century and far fewer people today involved in farming, meat consumption has risen more dramatically since the last century than during any other period in history, thanks to the advent of efficient commercial systems. Prices of meat have also become more affordable vis-à-vis incomes, making it commonplace in everyday diets.

With populations in developing regions expected to grow further and meat demand increasing as incomes rise, agriculture faces a daunting task of feeding more people on shrinking areas of available arable land and fewer natural resources. On the other hand, there is no denying that meat demand will continue to increase in the near future. Global food demand is estimated to double by the year 2050, from current levels.

Compared with yesteryears where livestock were kept free to range, modern farming systems have resulted in great improvements to the quality and efficiency in animal production. Animals receive better care in proper facilities, diets are well formulated to meet livestock nutritional needs, quality demands in food safety are met, animal health is improved, and food-borne diseases have dropped drastically.

Moving forward, sustainable production systems that take into account the environment, nutritional requirements of the animal and profitability of the business are pointing the way forward for the industry. Going "natural" in the usage of animal feedstuffs is also no longer a choice. Since the ban on antibiotic growth promoters or AGPs in the EU in 2006, producers have had to find natural alternatives. These replacements, termed natural growth promoters, include compounds that assist in promoting gut health such as probiotics, organic acids, phytogenics and a host of non-nutritive feeds that increase the efficiency of nutrient absorption by the animal.

Way before the ban took place in 2006, Biomin in 1983 was founded with the vision of providing a natural way to nutrition. The use of natural products to unlock the potential of animal nutrition and enhance animal performance has always been the Biomin approach.

Responding to consumer and market demands for healthier, more natural sources of food, it is clear that much research needs to be done in looking at other available options in nutrition. The task has fallen on the nutritionist, scientist and veterinarian to keep discovering better ways to improve animal diets and health, while at the same time bearing in mind ecological and economic constraints.

One of the challenges facing livestock producers is the high demand of feed raw materials, which makes up the bulk of production costs. Furthermore, agri-commodity prices are expected to move on an uptrend in the coming years due to competing demands for global grain and oilseed production from the food, feed and biofuels sectors. In a competitive market, producers find that they have to absorb the higher costs of meat production. It therefore becomes paramount to improve efficiencies and add value through other means, such as quality genetics, improved farm management and biosecurity, and more precise feed formulation using a combination of feed ingredients and additives that best enhance the animal's health and performance.

Feed safety is at the heart of safe, profitable animal production. By applying knowledge from life-sciences and nutrition, economics and ecology, Biomin's NutriEconomics programme provides a holistic approach to safe and efficient animal nutrition. This approach considers animal nutrition in the light of business profits and the natural environment. The economic consideration towards formulating diets is not simply based on the cost of ingredients but also the benefit that is accrued to the animal in terms of health and performance. Reformulating diets to include non-traditional feed sources may be necessary to fulfill this objective, and should be viewed as a worthwhile investment that yields returns for the producer.

Agriculture production systems affect and are in turn also affected by the ecological environment in which they operate. CO2, methane gases, animal excrements and odour are some of the residues resulting from livestock activities. Controlling the levels of these pollutants is the responsibility of the industry. This comes at an economic cost. At the same time, the need to tap on renewable energies adds further cost pressures on livestock producers.

Here is where animal nutrition can lend a hand. Methane expelled from livestock not only contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, it also reduces the energy consumed by an animal by up to 10%. Lowering methane emissions could simultaneously raise the level of feed efficiency and energy capture. Such nutritional solutions maximize the use of feed resources while improving the sustainability score for livestock farming.

As an animal nutrition company dedicated to the natural way of nutrition, Biomin is committed towards improving the use of scarce production resources to achieve the end goals of sustainable, ecologically sound yet profitable animal farming. By understanding the requirements of high quality animal diets and considering the effect that nutrition can have on limiting the environmental impact of farming, the performance and therefore, welfare of the animal and sustainable future of agriculture can be secured.