Thriving in the Animal Nutrition Industry: Is It Really That Hard?

Running an animal feed business is nothing but daunting. Facing all the recent challenges in the industry, keeping up-to-date with all the laws and regulations in this respect, and ensuring considerable profits without compromising the end product quality are just some of the most common issues animal nutrition businesses have to endure.

The European feed industry is one of the largest feed markets in the world. Yet, it faces some challenges regarding volume growth because of obstacles such as socio-economic issues, intricate legislation on livestock, and increased competition. Feed formulation also poses a significant problem, being one of the most decisive factors contributing to the success of such a business.

That’s because each company determines its ingredient buying decisions based on the very results of feed formulation. Thus, being a practitioner in animal nutrition can be downright stressful, although it might seem easy from the outside.

Fortunately, several technologies can help with food processing, including feed formulation. Some of these technologies can also enhance ingredients’ digestibility and minimize manure’s harmful emissions. So, if you’re a feed manufacturer in search of answers, learn that automation can go a long way in saving your business from failure and keeping you afloat with the actual market challenges. However, you might also need to rethink your animal feed strategies.

Let’s shed some more light on this matter!

Strategies for Animal Feed

China is the leading global producer of amino acids and vitamins, representing most vitamin imports, at least in the United States. One reason production is so concentrated in this country is economies of scale and government incentives focusing on making Chinese products stand out more than those from other regions. Thus, any further interruption to Chinese production would highly influence product availability and prices worldwide.

Short-term

If you run an animal feed business and rely mainly on Chinese products, we advise you to diversify your purchases. Diversifying is one of the most viable short-term strategies, as it ensures production safety. Other significant players in Asia you could buy products from include India and Asia.

As with Europe, noteworthy countries are Germany and the United Kingdom. However, this doesn’t mean there’s no risk – bringing in micro-ingredients from other parts of the world involves some considerable costs.

Long-term

Long-term strategies involve a rather different perspective. One recommended approach is to rely less on imports and more on micro-ingredient domestic production. Surely, this won’t happen overnight, but bit by bit, you could base your animal food production on livestock from your own country. This will not only limit the potential interruption from geopolitical disagreements but also contribute to another layer of biosecurity

The reliance on imported micro-ingredients or other by-products can also be achieved through continued investment in novel feed ingredients. Examples of novel feed ingredients include antioxidants and enzymes, both having undeniable benefits. The former contributes to the overall feed quality and helps prevent vitamin degradation.

Enzymes, on the other hand, utilize vitamins from feed ingredients to absorb nutrients from feedstuffs. However, there’s more than quality and nutrient absorption – novel feed ingredients can also help minimize the amount of feed intake required to maintain requirements like vitamins per species, also having a lower carbon footprint.

Automation in Animal Food Processing

Various technologies have emerged in order to help animal feed businesses thrive. Remember that, just like any other food production, animal food processing is prone to errors. Dosing and weighting are just some of the many points where mistakes can occur. And whereas some errors could go unnoticed, others could cause total chaos. Reducing these errors, according to specialists, is where automation really excels.

Automation in animal food processing has pretty much the same benefits as for most industries: it boosts productivity, improves repeatability, accuracy, and ease of scalability, reduces human error, and enhances safety.

Immediate benefits will be seen in the level of product quality, as well as weight accuracy. Food processing equipment for weighting further results in reduced waste and a lesser risk of underweights.

Filling and portioning systems also lead to better and more organized production, while machine monitoring with alerts helps handle stops more rapidly and reduces maintenance and repair problems. Automation with product recipes also facilitates operations and speeds changeovers, which could increase productivity in the long run.

Food processing machine like alfraequipment is highly advantageous for animal food manufacturers, particularly if distribution and operating suffer from a shortage of labor resources. Increasingly more animal feed businesses have started investing in advanced technologies to take their operations to the next level and enhance productivity. So, if you’re looking to do the same, we can only encourage you.

Choose A Trustworthy Supplier

Having a genuine supplier might not seem as crucial as having out-of-the-box equipment or top-notch strategies in place, but here we are telling you that’s not true. In fact, if you don’t have a genuine supplier, you risk being fooled with substandard products.

We know it’s tempting to go for the best supply deals of feeds, but lower prices don’t always mean good quality. So, ensure you collaborate with genuine suppliers who can provide appropriate documentation of their vending products. Impulse purchase has long been a problem among manufacturers, so be sure not to fall prey to it.

If you really want to benefit from lower prices, you could ask a reputable supplier if they offer discounts on a more considerable order. In most cases, this is possible. However, if it’s not, we still advise you to choose a genuine product over a substandard product.

Have An Online Presence

Who says you can’t market your animal feed business on social media? The Internet is for everyone. In fact, you can greatly benefit from posting the feed products accompanied by the appropriate information and pictures on social media channels like Instagram and TikTok. Millions of users can find you this way, even those customers who are farmers – trust us. However, avail as much information as possible and be creative to attract all!

Here’s how you can scale up your animal feeds business and thrive in an industry so often underrated.

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