 | BAN European ministers voted to ban Fishmeal feeding
to ruminants effective 1st January. I DO NOT SEE exclusion of use on
farm as realistic by this date - being the Christmas period etc. A
pragmatic approach would be to continue use of stocks until DIRECTLY advised
otherwise. |
| WHY Reason being that some sources may be
contaminated with meat and bone meal. Given that the Thatcher administration
gave the world BSE we should hardly complain. The UK has yet to put
emergency legislation to bring enforcement into effect - much of the
detail is undecided. Clients should lobby for redress if found out of
pocket. |
| Compensation It is not known if there will be
compensation to companies / farmers for closing stocks of fish or forward
orders or if producers will be able to use up remaining stocks. |
| UDP/DUP For herds at 8000L and lower - working on
good quality maize silage based diets - there is little financial need for
supplementary sources of Undegradable protein - the same cannot be said for
diets based solely on grass silage. |
| Alternatives are in order of preference Sopralin
(Trouw) Soypass, Rapepro (not Rapetec) followed by the Lactamine (Sopralin +
methionine), Amino Green and others. |
| Sopralin has the highest amount of Undegradable
protein - 90% of the crude protein. 0.5kg will directly replace 0.5kg
fish to supply Undegradable protein needs. Soypass - whilst cheaper
contains 60% of the crude protein as Undegradable. Soya itself is 30% UDP.
Figures in the table attached are expressed as Digestible Undegradable
protein |
| Fertility Fishmeal is a good source of essential
oils for fertility. Whole linseed is a viable alternative - and recent
trials have shown that linseed oil is equal to fish in improving the quality
and size of ova -rapeseed oil showed no improvement. |
| Linseed can be purchased around £115 per ton -
contains 35% Oil and 22% protein, approx 18-20MJ. Fed without treatment 30%
of seeds will pass straight out the back end. Linseed has to be treated with
Caustic soda at 50kg per ton and initially 50kg water for storage. Do
not add more water for storage longer than a week - otherwise a gooey mess
will result. Linseed should be soaked the day before feeding with
250-450kg water. Maximum feeding rates are 1.25-1.5kg dry Linseed - do
not exceed these rates or fibre digestion may be impaired. Start at
1kg dry weight equivalent. Caustic treatment is more gentle than
extrusion or crushing because it does not open cells. Oil is contained
within cells and is not therefore enabling safe feeding as compared to other
free oil sources. |
| Fats are available which mimic Fishmeal - some
contain fish oils - at a price 2-3 x that of caustic Linseed |
| Amino Acids Fishmeal is primarily high in
Lysine - methionine is reasonable - diets should always be balanced
for high lysine sources. Soya, Rape and Beans are good sources of
Lysine, methionine can be added via Smartamine at 8-10p per cow per
day. Maize products are better sources of methionine but low for
lysine. The first principal of any nutritional program is to maximise
lysine as there are no economic sources of PROTECTED lysine. Thus
Maize feeds such as gluten and distillers meals or germ meal can only be
used to a limited extent for the very high yielding cow. In general
herds operating below 8000L need not use synthetic protected methionine. |
| Formaldehyde Sopralin is protected Soya - the
protection comes from 2.4g/kg added formaldehyde - a carcinogen.
Trouw do this by applying in isolated protected areas via automated auger
dispenser. The technique is probably not suitable for farm bucket
chemistry. Over treat and the protein remains completely undigested by
the cow. |