Learning the History of the World Animal Feed Industry

The ability to create a stable supply of food from livestock led to the world's population developing, community centers developing and cities emerging. The domestication of wild plants and livestock, as well as the use of irrigation and tillage tools, has resulted in a growing population. When the human population is increasing and many people live in urban areas, livestock and agriculture are increasingly organized, efficient and productive with the use of technology and various innovations. The science of animal feed nutrition became a scientific discipline starting about 200 years ago. In 1810 the German scientist Albrecht Daniel Thaer developed the first animal feed standard by comparing the nutrients of different types of hay. This was followed by a number of discoveries related to animal feed nutrition such as proximate analysis systems, feed standards based on digestible nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed by livestock, until 1944 L.A. Maynard published a table of nutritional needs for livestock and laboratory animal husbandry. The table of nutritional requirements then becomes the world standard for feed formulation to date including ruminants such as sheep, goats and cows.

Animal feed into a trade commodity or commercial product began in the early 1800s when the means of transportation and moving agricultural products mainly used horses and donkeys. Horse farm and breeding is an important thing. Horse stops as resting places are made along the route between cities as public facilities or similar to gas stations at this time. One of the important things in this resting place is the provision of quality feed for the horses, such as hay, seeds and so on. This has sprung up a number of businesses providing horse and donkey feed, and a number of feed companies that exist today such as Cargill, ADM, Purina, and Ridley started here, even though at that time the use of scientific feed formulations was very minimal.

Horse stopping and feeding station in the 1800s

 

Feed mills in America are built adjacent to grain mills, even many industries have been engaged in grinding the grain is also involved in the feed industry. The animal feed industry uses by-products or waste from grinding these grains. The first animal feed mills were made by adding a number of nutrients to the byproducts of wheat flour. The use of technology and mechanization is also increasing in number to achieve feed products with uniform quality and efficient production processes. Around 1900 the hammer mill was first used followed by the horizontal batch mixer in 1909. The early 20th century saw many advances in the use of technology for animal feed but the most noticeable and dramatic progress was when Purina introduced feed pellets in the 1920s. With this pelletization, the powder is less favorable to livestock (unpalatable), the different densities become easier to use and increases uniformity. This pelletization technique was quickly in demand by many feed producers so that in 1930 there were a number of feed factories that specialized in the production of these feed pellets.

Around 1940 and 1950 the formulation of feed was more complex with the addition of vitamins and minerals. In the late 1950s progress and specialization continued in the feed industry. In addition, the production capacity is also getting bigger, even in the 1970s the range of animal feed factory capacity was between 200 - 500 thousand tons per year. Meanwhile, large farms choose to make their own feed to make it more competitive. The use of automation in feed mills began in 1975 and continues to evolve to minimize feed costs and maximize efficiency in the production process. The technology and software for the production process continue to develop, including the logistics of various feed ingredients, size characteristics, the pelletization process, the extrusion process, and many other things in production.

Meanwhile, the development of the animal feed industry in Europe is more or less imitating the existing development pattern in America. Grain processing and milling technology advanced rapidly in the 19th century. In an effort to accelerate the development of the animal feed industry in Europe, in 1959 Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands formed the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation (FEFAC) as an organization for the feed industry in Europe. FEFAC has a mission to unite the feed industry and establish communication and cooperation in the European region. Even though it was quite successful in this effort, FEFAC experienced quite horrendous problems, namely in 1996 with the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) crisis because it was related to feeding derived from mammalian meat and bone meal (MBM) or bone meal and mammalian meat for ruminant feed. Meat infected with BSE causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which creates a high risk to the human food chain. After the outbreak spread, the use of MBM in animal feed was prohibited. This regulation causes a high dependence on imported raw materials such as soybean meal for a sustainable supply of meat, milk and eggs. Learning from this, FEFAC in the 21st century has a focus on feed and food safety initiatives. The organization took initiatives to be globally enforceable, such as in 2001 banning the use of MBM, in 2006 banning antibiotics in feed, legislation related to nitrates in livestock manure, and the use of GMO raw materials (GMOs).

Brazil is a country in South America that is quite developed in the animal feed industry and is currently the third largest supplier of animal feed in the world. Interestingly, commercial feed production in Brazil was only practiced in the 1960s. The development pattern of the animal feed industry in Brazil uses the same model as in America and Europe, namely the companies involved in milling and processing grains such as wheat and maize were also the first to be involved in the animal feed industry. The first wheat bran was built in the 1940s. Currently in Brazil, part of the feed industry is integrated with its livestock, or about 80%, which means that the feed manufacturing industry is also the same industry as the livestock. Another interesting thing is that Brazil also ranks second in the world for the pet feed industry, even though this industry was almost non-existent before the 1990s. Brazil has abundant production of maize, soybeans and other commodities which greatly support the animal feed industry.

China is the largest animal feed producer in the world, accounting for nearly 20% of the world, followed by the United States (17.4%) and Brazil (6.8%). The history of the animal feed industry in China began in 1930 with the first modern flour mills established and was followed by the use of the mill's by-products for animal feed. Meanwhile, the first modern feed factory was only established in 1949. Furthermore, due to the political uncertainty and slow economic growth and the centralized government, grain production decreased so that most of it was for human consumption. The growth of the feed industry and livestock is also very limited. Changes in political conditions in 1976 made the animal feed industry begin to grow again. In 1977 a comparative study was conducted on the feed industry in France, Japan and America. And in 1984 a draft plan for the development of the feed industry was published with outlines of objectives and strategies for the years 1984-2000.

In the same year (1984) a number of policies were also issued to support the development of the domestic feed industry, such as high export taxes for feed ingredients and milling equipment, tax free for up to 3 years for new feed factories and even tax free if the factory was not yet producing with sufficient profit. The first feed standard was issued in 1996, but due to inconsistent interpretation of the standard, nearly 10% of animal feed tests were substandard in 1998. Even in 2007 there was a withdrawal of pet feed due to contamination with melamine and cyanuric acid (which is high in nitrogen and identified as a crude protein content) in protein elements that cause kidney failure. The use of nitrogen from the above chemical is also carried out on agricultural products as well as the withdrawal of agricultural products from China in South Africa, the European Union and the United States. Even America ordered the USDA to inspect all agricultural products from China. In 2008 and 2009 China focused on eliminating the problem of counterfeiting or mixing and the effects of the resulting crisis. In 2010 a revised version of the feed and feed additive regulations was published to further ensure quality and safety. Although China is the largest feed producer in the world, the need for feed raw materials still relies on imports, especially soybean flour / meal to support food needs in the form of meat, milk and eggs for around its 1.3 billion people.

The source and availability of feed has always been the main orientation for livestock business. From the above history it is clear that large farms were always built close to a source of feed such as mills. The role of the government is also very important to encourage this effort. The high price of factory-produced concentrate can also be a driving force for the growth of large farms adjacent to energy plantations. The protein element in feed, apart from being essential, is also the highest cost element, while feed itself holds the highest cost component in animal husbandry or around 70%. Ruminants are herbivores so their food comes from plants, the case of MBM in Europe can be an expensive lesson that feeding from mammals actually creates new problems. Moreover, if the food category is najis/unclean, then the livestock become jalalah animals which are prohibited from being consumed (haram). Meanwhile, the case of mixing with dangerous chemicals that occurred in China with melamine and cyanuric acid was only to deceive the protein content so that it looks high is also dangerous for the health of the human body.

The momentum of the energy plantation or biomass plantation can be a great momentum for the growth of the ruminant livestock industry as long as it is well prepared. Other feed sources can be obtained from the surrounding environment so that the complete feed composition can be fulfilled. Bran from rice mills are also not difficult to find in Indonesia because the staple food of the majority of Indonesia's population is rice. Rice fields for rice farming are almost everywhere, so are the rice mills. Other sources of grasses such as elephant grass, benggala grass and so on as a source of fiber or agricultural wastes such as straw, peanut leaves, corn leaves and stalks and so on can be done by empowering the surrounding community. And when the feed production is sufficient for their own needs, the excess feed production can be sold elsewhere.