The Dutch livestock industry is a familiar user of a large range of different moisture-rich cattle feed in the diets of pigs and cattle. In the food, beverage and tobacco industry and the distilling industry, large quantities of products are produced that can be used as feedstuffs for the livestock industry. For reasons of sustainability and expense, manufacturers of moisture-rich products continually study options for selling these products to the livestock industry as moisture-rich feedstuffs.
The place in the chain
Moisture rich cattle feed is bought by distributors from the food, beverages and tobacco industry and the distilling industry and supplied to cattle farmers as a single product or as a standardised mixture of several products. Moisture-rich cattle feed is an integral part of the cattle feed industry as presented in more detail in figure 1. This figure presents an overview of major parties and products flows.
Figure 1: Major parties and product flows in the cattle feed industry (www.opnv.nl/www.pdv.nl)
Sustainability
Moisture-rich cattle feed is dominated by sustainability. Producers of feedstuffs save energy and costs and reduce CO2-emissions by selling products that have not been dried, but are moisture-rich. Furthermore, some of the moisture-rich products are used for the production of alcohol, bio-ethanol and biogas. This alternative is being used more and more often by producers instead of selling products that are technically less valuable as cattle feed.
Review
Each year, a review is drawn up of the quantities of moisture-rich cattle feed sold in the Netherlands. These products are produced in the Netherlands or within a limited distance of the country’s borders. The figures for the quantities sold in recent years are available at the website under the “News” menu and submenu "Sales figures".
Accountability
This website describes the moisture-rich cattle feeds that are common on the Dutch market and for which there is sufficiently substantiated information available. The information provided is based on the information given by the suppliers.
The information on this website comes from the collection Vochtrijke Diervoeders [Moisture-rich Cattle Feed] presented by the Overleggroep Producenten Natte Veevoeders (OPNV) in conjunction with Schothorst Feed Research BV (SFR) at the OPNV symposium on 15 January 2008. The texts that have been brought up to date were edited by SFR..
