Confectionery and Cake Feed !?!?
Irish surplus food recycler Millstream Recycling has just signed a distribution deal with their UK counterpart SugaRich to sell their Feeds in Ireland. The agreement marks a substantial increase in the quantity of by-product feeds now available to Irish farmers.
Millstream specialise in the removal of former foodstuffs from Irish food and drink manufacturers. Typical reasons why the food never hits the shelf are due to factors like faulty packaging, damage during manufacturing, failure to meet specifications, end cuttings etc. Established in 1995, the Wexford based recycler designs excess food solutions for their factory partners, collects the excess food, transports it back to their facility where it is processed into a rich animal feed. Their customers include mills, merchants and farmers. In a highly regulated industry, Millstream are rigorously audited by numerous different bodies, not a problem as it ensures nothing but the best service to their suppliers and feed quality to their customers. But Millstream did have one problem, a good problem if there is such a thing. “Due to our countries low population there is relatively little surplus food available for feed yet there has always been great demand for our high feed value products. We needed to look elsewhere. The UK was an obvious choice due to its proximity to Ireland. With a 60m person population there compared to just a 4m population here there’s obviously going to be a lot more supply of downgrade food material. The UK has a high Food Production: Farmer ratio and the large supply has slightly outweighed demand for such products in recent years” explains Charlie Hogg, Head of Procurement at Millstream Recycling.
It was then that Charlie approached SugaRich, a company with an almost identical business model to Millstream’s. After selling their alternative feeds to British farmers for over 60 years, they felt that now was an opportune time to begin exporting. Millstream and SugaRich identified 2 products with guaranteed availability, specifically targeting Irish Beef, Dairy and Pig farmers feed needs. The 2 products, namely MillRich Confectionery and MillRich Sweet Cake are both high in an uncommon combination of Starch, Sugar and Oil. The dry and free flowing milled products are composed of a consistent blend of Chocolate, Sweets, Cakes, Pastries, Muffins etc. These products provide many advantages to the farmer over standard cereals, to name a few;
- Various Energy Sources – These feeds have combination of various energy sources with different degradable properties. Whereas Wheat, Maize, Barley and Oats all behave slightly differently in the animal. The benefit of Sweet Cake and Confectionery feeds is that it helps to ensure that there is available energy for the rumen bacteria; the initial supply of readily available carbohydrates from sugars and simple carbohydrates provides energy for the rumen microbes to mop up the simple nitrogen compounds present in preserved forages to produce microbial protein. Medium length starches, which break down more slowly, sustain the slower acting bacteria in their protein synthesis and there will still be some slow degrading starch that will possibly by-pass the rumen.
- Cooked products are highly digestibile – This means the animal can utilise more of the product. Very simply the more that is digestible the less waste, high digestibility can also encourage higher intakes, which results in greater forage intake and more weight gain attributed to forage intake, forage being the most cost effective feed the farmer has.
- Very palatable due to high sugar contents– This helps drive intakes to increase milk and meat production. Smell and taste are key senses that stimulate appetite in ruminants, addition of by-products is tremendously beneficial if some of the forages are not of the best quality and intakes are below expected.
- No processing fees – The feed is ready to use when it arrives on the farm. Upon the arrival of whole cereals they have to be processed (ground, rolled or cracked) before they can be digested by the animal, poor processing that results in a proportion of whole grain being fed, often noticed when whole grains are being seen in the manure results in wastage. It also avoids having to hire in Mill Mix contractors who usually charge €9 to €12 per tonne.
- High Energy Density – Sweet Cake and Confectionery have a higher energy density than ground maize. 15.5 ME+ vs 14 ME maize. (11% more). This in the present raw material market is worth over €15 per tonne, a higher energy density means less space being used in the diet leaving more space for forage which as we have mentioned before are the farmer’s most cost effective feed.
- High in Oil – With feed fats around €780/t Sweet Cake and Confectionery contain over €65 worth of oil.
- Improves M/D of diets – aiming for 12MJ/Kg DM in a dairy diet most commercial diets fall below this unless expensive fats are added to improve the density. (M/D is megajoules of metabolisable energy per kilogram of dry matter)
- GMO free – so suitable for certain supermarket contracts. Compared to the large quantities of imported genetically modified cereals.
By backhauling high dry matter products from the UK, Millstream were able to further cut costs, making these 2 feeds a very attractive value option for farmers this winter.
Both MillRich Confectionery and MillRich Sweet Cake are available in 28 tonne loads delivered to Farm Yard in bulk @ €249/tonne and €243/tonne respectively.
Please contact Charlie on 087 9494285 for further details or to place an order.
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