Source:
[1] May 1, 2008
Feed costs have skyrocketed in the past year, affecting not only livestock and poultry producers but also the veterinarians who help formulate the animals' diets.
The American Association of Swine Veterinarians devoted a session of its annual meeting to the topic of "Controlling Feed Costs," with speakers discussing the problem and potential solutions.
John M. Urbanchuk, an economist with LECG LLC, said feed prices have increased for a variety of reasons—such as production of fuel from crops, bad weather for crops in some countries outside the United States, demand from China and India, and high oil prices. The weak dollar also has led many speculators to invest in commodities, driving up feed prices.
Urbanchuk said the bubble will burst at some point, but he predicted that corn prices will remain high in the near future as more corn goes into ethanol production. Conversely, prices will drop for distillers grains, a byproduct of ethanol production that hog producers have been trying out as a feed ingredient.
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