Pressed by ethanol demand,
the 2007 ingredient cost of feeding pigs has gone up by an estimated 25 to 30 percent but prices paid to farms have remained constant and or have softened creating a cost price squeeze.
Farmers are studying the ingredients that are in a typical pig diet and re-examining the reason that they’re in the diet, i. e. are they there primarily to supply energy or are they there primarily to supply amino acids or vitamins or minerals.
Feed costs to supply energy is the largest. Supplying energy i. e. wheat, barley, field peas and oil typically represent 60 to 65 percent of the total cost of the diet.
“…if I formulate a diet where I only have an energy spec and no amino acid, vitamin or mineral specifications and then compare that to a fully balanced diet, about 50 to 55 percent of the cost is required just to meet the energy specifications, so we’re looking at a very substantial portion of the cost of the diet being attributed to the energy component and that’s the component that has gone up the most in the past six months.”
via farmscape