OSR growers warned of disease threat

Oilseed rape growers who were hit by light leaf spot (LLS) last season face a high risk of further problems in 2013 and should be prepared to spray in the next few weeks, HGCA work has shown.

LLS has become more prevalent in England in recent years and this is set to continue. November is an important month for monitoring the disease and spraying if risk is high.

HGCA fungicide performance trials, which started in 2009, show that good control of light leaf spot is difficult to achieve. A report of the trials, now available from HGCA, shows azoles are the leading fungicides, but reduced sensitivity to these products may be affecting performance. Read more...

Nabim/HGCA milling wheat challenge winner revealed

This year’s winner of the Nabim/HGCA wheat challenge is farm manager Andrew Robinson (pictured left) of Heathcote Farms, Toddington, Bedfordshire. It was his enthusiasm, attention to detail and marketing strategy that impressed the judges most.

The competition set out to find the country’s best milling wheat grower judging entrants on their ability to consistently grow high quality crops and having a sharp eye on cost of production and marketing. Read more...

Three farmers dead in spate of accidents

Farming accidents claimed three lives in three days across the UK last week. Cornish livestock farmer Kelvin Bailey, 67, was struck by a car on Saturday 27, October as he moved cattle across a road between United Downs and Frogpool near St Day. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Bailey farmed at Cusgarne Manor and a statement released by his family said he would be “greatly missed by his wife, relations and many, many friends”. Neighbouring farmer Greg Pascoe added his tribute to Mr Bailey, describing him as a gentle giant. Read more...

Novozymes and Syngenta join in fungi fight

Enzyme maker Novozymes and crop breeder Syngenta are entering into an exclusive global marketing and distribution agreement on a unique biofungicide used to combat damaging fungal diseases across a range ofcrops.

The two companies join in an exclusive global marketing and distribution agreement on the microbial-based biofungicide Taegro, a natural solution with multiple modes of action used to combat fungal diseases across various crops. Read more...

Feed Management Systems (FMS) took its first giant step into 21st century computing with its introduction of Pennent Mill Manager on the Sivado platform.

Sivado is a manufacturing and business operations solution that, according to FMS, will change how the global feed industry shares and uses information, communicates with suppliers, employees and customers and ultimately makes critical business decisions.

It is a next-generation technology platform, that will deliver actionable intelligence to customers, anywhere, anytime.

Pennent Mill Manager is the first solution from FMS built on Sivado. Read more...

Belarus: Pork prices up 30 percent due to higher feed costs

Belarus has set the maximum selling price of pork carcasses, reported the Ministry of Economy. Prices are now 30 percent higher than previously.

Maximum selling prices for all types of meat in Belarus have been set by special government decree. According to experts the pork and beef production companies have in recent months become unprofitable due to the rising feed prices, a phenomenon prevalent for in the entire territory of the Customs Union. Read more...

Russia refusal to ban exports lifts hopes for 2013

Russia’s decision to remain open to grain exports, despite a poor harvest, is feeding through into raised prospects for the 2013 crop, besides meaning the country may yet have some more supplies to ship this season.

Russian farmers are not just raising sowings of winter crops – to some 16.8 million hectares from a little over 16 million hectares last year – but spending more on the crop too, analysis group SovEcon said. ”They can invest more in agricultural inputs such as seed and fertiliser,” Andrey Sizov, the SovEcon managing director, said, adding that conditions had been broadly favourable too. Read more...

People: Expansion for BOCM Pauls

BOCM Pauls has established a reputation among German pig producers over the past 10 years for its specialist feeds and has further strengthened its presence in the German specialist pig feed market with the appointment of an additional Area Sales Manager.

Joining the sales force as Area Sales Manager is Peter Stickel who will be operating in the areas around Munster and Osnabruck. He has more than 20 years experience in the feed and livestock markets, particularly in the specialist pig sector.  He will operate from the company’s new offices at Steinfurt-Borghurst, which also accommodate the sales administration and customer service departments. Read more...

Russia plans to produce 30 million tons of feed

According to experts Russia will be able to produce about 30-32 million tons of feed by 2015, this was recently stated by the president of the Russian Union of Feed producers Valery Afanasiev, speaking at a meeting of the Russian Technology Platform “Technologies for the food processing industry and agriculture healthy food” in the conference “Golden Autumn 2012“.

“Today our feed industry is probably one of the most stable and fastest growing”, he stressed, and “The annual increase in production of animal feed is currently estimated at the level of 1.2-1.3 million tons. This is about 9-10 percent of the annual production. Sustainability to the Russian feed industry has been brought primarily by the Russian poultry farmers and pig breeders, because the rapid growth in this sectors led to constant increase of the demand for animal feed and feed additives”. Read more...

TSG Slide Gate added to Vortex Titan Series

The Vortex Titan Series TSG Valve is designed to meet the most demanding applications when handling heavy-duty abrasive materials such as sand, gravel, coal, whole grains, metal powders or minerals. The TSG Valve handles dry material in gravity flow applications where positive material shut-off and dust tight sealing are required.

This slide gate is available in a wide variety of configurations with rectangular sizes and customer specific hole patterns. The TSG Valve has “live loaded” nylon seals that extend service life by compensating for wear and provide an exceptional material seal across the gate and to atmosphere. The TSG Valve has replaceable liners that can be swapped while the valve is still in-service vastly reducing downtime. The gate utilises easily accessible, hardened steel cam-adjustable rollers and polymer blade guides – a feature that is critical to maintaining a positive seal. Read more...

Schothorst Feed Research and Topigs join in research

Schothorst Feed Research (SFR) in the Netherlands has officially opened their new research facilities for pigs and sows. The opening of the new pig facility marks the last stage of a €9 (US$11.608) million investment program by SFR.

In the new facilities also pig breeder Topigs will test different sow and boar lines. Through this co-operation not only the capacity for nutritional research has expanded but also the interaction between nutrition and genetics will be a structural aspect of the research program. Read more...

DDGS overtakes soybean feeds in US

Renewable Fuels Association Vice President Geoff Cooper says distillers grains and other ethanol co-products surpassed the US soybean crushing industry in terms of feed production. Speaking at the Export Exchange, Cooper said that the American ethanol industry produced nearly 35-million metric tons of nutrient-dense animal feed in the 2011-12 marketing year.

He said that means the ethanol industry surpassed the US soybean crushing industry in terms of feed production. According to Cooper about a quarter of the feed co-products generated last year was exported to more than 50 countries. Read more...

Major Canadian feed makers merge

Canadian feed makers Masterfeeds and Ridley will merge their respective commercial livestock and poultry feed and nutrition businesses in Canada into a new entity called Masterfeeds LP. The combination of Masterfeeds and Ridley’s Canadian feed business, which operates as Feed-Rite, will create the second largest feed provider in Canada.

The new entity will operate, among other things, 22 feed manufacturing plants and employ over 500 people in a business spanning across Quebec, Ontario and the Prairie Provinces. Masterfeeds LP will be headquartered in London, Ontario and led by current Masterfeeds Chief Executive Officer, Rob Flack.

“Masterfeeds and Feed-Rite are two of the most respected brand names in Canadian animal agriculture,” said Flack. ”We are excited about bringing the strengths of both companies together. As the feed industry evolves, we expect there to be more opportunities for Masterfeeds LP to grow in the future,”  he adds. Read more...

Russia cut corn export by half due to high domestic demand

By the end of this agricultural year (July 2012-June 2013) Russia will reduce corn exports by half, predicts the general director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) Dmitry Rylko.

“Despite the fact that the corn crop this year will be comparable to level of the year last year, we will not see the highest ever exports. This year it will be only about 950,000 tons against 1.885 million tons last year,” said Rylko.

According to Rylko this year with the good harvest and low prices the cornis very important for livestock producers, as it is the main component of feed. ”This year, for example, corn is replacing wheat and barley in feed within due limits. This largely explains the high demand for it in the domestic market” he added. Read more...

A million tons of DDGs pushed on UK market

Two huge wheat-for-ethanol plants are coming on stream in Britain supplying and extra one million tons of distillers grains to the animal feed industry.

Material from these plants will help fill the cattle fodder gaps for the coming winter. In particular, the ethanol co-products will make a contribution to lowering the demand for imported protein and soybean meal.

The two new British ethanol plants include the Ensus plant on Teeside, which is already operating, and the Vivergo plant near Hull, which is gearing up to production over the next couple of months. Read more...

No future for first generation biofuels

The European Commission recently proposed a policy shift that would allow food-based biofuels to contribute no more than half of the 10 percent target stipulated under the Renewable Energy Directive.

The remaining supply would be restricted to advanced biofuels, known as ‘second generation’ biofuels. The commission is also proposed to increase the efficiency targets that biofuels must reach before they receive subsidies. Read more...

Nuscience opens second production line in China

Premix group Nuscience has held a Grand Opening Ceremony for the second production line in Suzhou, China. Over 400 customers attended the ceremony. With this new line, the capacity is doubled and also specialty products will be produced locally.

Nuscience Group operate since 1999 in Suzhou, China. As the business is growing steadily it was decided to invest in extra production capacity. This extra capacity will make it possible to produce more premixes, concentrates and piglet feed for the Chinese mainland. Read more...

Partners celebrate 10 years of flour fortification progress

In the past decade, the number of countries requiring wheat flour fortification with at least iron or folic acid has more than doubled from 33 to 75, and the proportion of industrially milled flour being fortified has risen from 18 to 30 percent. Advocates say this progress is due to leaders in the public, private, and civic sectors working together to improve health through fortified flour.

Regional strategies led to widespread flour fortification in the Middle East and the Americas before 2002, but there was no global movement to promote this cost-effective means of improving nutrition. A “Policy Planning Forum” on October 24, 2002 led to creation of the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) as a network of partners working together to make fortification standard practice in industrial mills. Read more...

EFSA considers niacin safe for feed addition

The term ‘niacin’ is used as generic description of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. Niacin is widely distributed and occurs in large quantities in yeasts, brans and food of animal origin. Nicotinic acid and nicotinamide are regarded as an effective vitamin source in animal nutrition.

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide as additives to feed for all animal species. Read more...

Quality of Courses AIB International and International Grains Program partner to hold the grain milling HACCP course.

Having and implementing a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) program is standard for any business related to the food industry, but tailoring that HACCP program to meet the needs of the different types of companies can be challenging. 

AIB International has worked to help individuals involved in the flour milling industry plan and understand a milling HACCP plan. AIB International partnered with Kansas State University’s International Grains Program to host 19 individuals from the milling industry for the Grain Milling: Food Safety and HACCP Workshop. Participants attended the course from October 16-18, 2012. Read more...

EU approves GM maize MIR162

The European Commission formally authorised the genetically modified (GM) maize MIR162 Agrisure Vipterra marketed by the Swiss company Syngenta for use in food and feed, as well as for import and processing in the European Union.

The EU executive’s decision entered into force after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, on 20 October. It has put an end to the authorisation procedure, which was initialled in July 2010 when Syngenta submitted its application to the German authorities.

The US Grains Council is pleased with the approval. “This will open the way for exports of US corn co-products, including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and corn gluten feed (CGF),” it said in a press release. Read more...

People: New appointments at Pancosma

To support the company’s sales re organisation, Pancosma has promoted Ronald Kräft to the position of sales director for North and East Europe but also for Middle East areas.

Also, Dirk Zandstra recently joined his team as area sales manager for Benelux. He will be responsible for the sales of all Pancosma’s products in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Read more...

Silage economics stoke doubts over US crop data

Does chopping corn for silage, because it is too poor for leaving for grain, mean farmers taking a hit in the wallet? Not necessarily. Which is one reason why many analysts have a beef with US Department of Agriculture crop estimates.

Silage vs grain

The typical dynamics where it would be a toss-up for a grower to chop failed corn for silage, or just disc it in, have been ploughed in themselves by the high values of forage which have given value for any plant matter fit for feeding livestock. Read more...

US wheat farmers raise bet on rains coming good

US farmers upped their gamble that rains will refresh winter wheat, catching up on seedings, even as lingering dryness slowed crop development and worsened the condition of seedlings in the top growing state.

Growers sowed 10 percent of their winter wheat last week, putting themselves, at 81 percent completion, narrowly ahead of the average for the time of year, despite a slow start, US Department of Agriculture showed.

However, crop emergence, at 49 percent, remained behind the typical pace, particularly in more northerly areas. Read more...

Phosphorus digestibility of alternative feed ingredients for pigs

The most abundant oilseeds produced in the world, aside from soybeans, are cottonseed, canola seed (rapeseed), and sunflower seed. These oilseeds may be fed as de-oiled meals, or the full fat seeds can be fed to increase the energy concentration of the diet.

Oilseeds and oilseed meals also provide phosphorus to the diet. However, most of the phosphorus in these sources is bound to phytate, and is not available to pigs.

An experiment was performed to determine the standardised total tract digestibility (STTD) of phosphorus in canola, cottonseed, and sunflower products, and to discover how the addition of phytase influences the STTD of phosphorus. Read more...

More photos from the JTIC 63rd conference October 2012

Edoardo Baldin from Imeco

Perten's stand 

More stand photos and photos from the
exhibition hall JTIC 2012



























Images from the exhibition hall JTIC 2012

 

The 63rd edition of the JTIC Reims, France

The 63rd edition of the JTIC meeting takes place under the sign of the wide spectrum. Wide spectrum of professional wheat-flour-bread sector: breeders, milling, animal feed, equipment maker, industrial bakery and craft bakery... Wide spectrum on Europe and on Africa visitors: a numerous foreign visitors are waited this year.

The Global Milling team from NISA Media attended the 63rd edition of the meeting in Reims France during October 2012. See our photos from the JTIC meeting. 

JTIC Entrance 

Nelly Duprat from Aemic, organisers of JTIC and Sabby Major
from the Global Milling Team 

Chopin

              

Kaseem Nameh from Satake Europe Ltd 

Ervin Tanyi from Romer Labs Diagnostic GmbH

Sylvia Graf from Vibronet

Foss Stand at the JTIC

OFC 2013 to reveal farming's value to society

The hidden contribution UK farming makes to society is to be evaluated for the first time in a ground-breaking piece of research commissioned by the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC).

The research aims to establish the extra value from farming in the UK beyond the usual measures, such as share of agriculture and allied sectors, to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mike Gooding, 2013 OFC chairman, said: "We want to look at the full range of economic, environmental and social sources of value farmers contribute to wider society. To date these hidden values have never been accurately quantified.

"We commissioned this work to move the debate forward to bring confidence to the industry about just how much it delivers through activities such as flood defences, public access to green spaces and clean water, and to better understand what society gets from their connection with farming and the countryside."

The work is being undertaken by Peter Carruthers, of Vision 37 Ltd, and Michael Winter, professor and director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research at the University of Exeter.

Co-sponsored by Burges Salmon, the RSPB and Volac, the research findings will be presented at the conference in January. They will support the event's overall theme: Confident Farmers - Delivering for Society.

Bookings are now being taken for the conference, which runs from 2-4 January 2013 at Oxford University Examination Schools. For details, visit the website www.ofc.org.uk