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Feed represents 55 to 70% of the total cost of pork production. Furthermore, about 85% of the total cost of a diet formulation accrues from simply meeting the energy specification (Gutierrez and Patience, 2012). Thus, meeting the energy specifications for feed represents between 50% and 60% of the total cost of pork production; no other single production budget item comes close. For this reason, any discussion on feed efficiency and financial success must include a very serious consideration of how to best meet the energy needs of the pig. While feed costs have dropped substantially in the past 6 months, concern about high feed costs remains a recent memory. For example, over the past 3 years, the annual average price of barley (fob Lethbridge) has ranged from CAD 252 to CAD 181 per tonne and corn (fob Chatham) has ranged from CAD 257 to CAD 170.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/john-patience/135/
This proceeding is published as Patience, J.F. 2015. Feed management to maximize feed efficiency and net revenue. Proc. 2015 Banff Pork Sem., Banff, AB. pp. 195-206. Posted with permission.