Imported straight feeds:

Soya Bean Meal

Is a by-product of oil-extraction from Soya beans, which when crushed produces two by-products - hulls and meal. Both of these are then toasted to remove anti-nutritional factors and drive off any remaining solvents. For every tonne of Soya beans crushed, there is roughly 750Kg of Soya Meal.

Soya Bean Meal contains high levels of Lysine and Methionine which are the first two limiting amino acids. This makes it essential in most high-production diets.

Hi-Pro Soya

Hi-Pro Soya is de-hulled pure meal. It is 48% protein fresh, and 13.6 MJ/Kg DM.

Low-Pro Soya (IMSA)

This version contains the hulls and is consequently only 44% protein and maybe as low as 42%, with an ME of 12.9 MJ/Kg DM.

Note:

It is important to cost each percentage of protein when trying to make a comparison between the two. Commmonly, even though Hi-Pro Soya tends to be around £10/Tonne more expensive than Low-Pro, it represents much better value for money.

Rape Seed Meal

(Also produced in the UK) This solvent extracted oil-seed is grown for it's soft oil. Current varietys have much lower levels of anti-nutritional factors than the varietys grown 20 years ago, and it is generally recognised that dairy feeds for example can safely contain up to 25% inclusion of Rape Seed Meal.

Normally around 88% dry matter and 38% protein, it is only 12.1MJ/Kg DM.

Palm Kernel Meal

Imported from West Africa and Asia, this meal is the by-product of Palm Oil manufacture. It is a pale-brown dry, gritty meal with a soapy smell. The meal is not particularly nutritious, but at 8% oil, the expeller version is 12.8 MJ.Kg DM, and provides a useful background supply of butterfat enhancing oil to dairy diets. The extracted version commonly only contains 2% oil, and is of very limited value. Palm Kernel Meal may contain high levels of aflatoxin and salmonella, so it is wise to seek assurances from the suppliers.

Corn Gluten Meal (Maize Gluten Feed)

In recent years the use of Corn Gluten has been severely restricted in Europe and particularly the UK, after the debate and EU legislation on the use of non-registered varieties of GM Maize. Currently there is a better availability of approved varieties. This has meant that we can now import a limited quantity of US gluten (which may still have suffered heat damage in transit), or some Belgian product which is much better. Maize Gluten typically analyses well at 88% dry matter and 21% protein, with an ME of 12.9MJ/Kg DM.