Currently, prices for poultry eggs, poultry meat, and milk are low, placing farming operations in a break-even or marginally profitable state. The swine industry, in particular, faces numerous uncertainties, with low-price periods for pork generally lasting longer than high-price periods. In a sluggish farming market, how to weather these challenges is a major concern for producers. Since feed costs account for 50% to 70% of overall farming costs, reducing feed expenses is crucial under current conditions. For farms of various scales, using low-cost, locally available unconventional feed ingredients to produce affordable and compliant feed is a sound strategy for navigating market difficulties.(feed additive)

1. Types and Characteristics of Unconventional Feed Ingredients

1.1 Concept of Unconventional Feed Ingredients

Unconventional feed ingredients refer to ingredients that are rarely used in feed formulations or for which nutritional characteristics and feeding value are not well understood. This is a relative concept, as feed ingredients vary by region and animal diet. An ingredient that is unconventional in one area or diet may be conventional in another. Unlike traditional ingredients such as corn and soybean meal, unconventional feed ingredients are those outside typical formulations.

1.2 Common Unconventional Feed Ingredients

In Shandong, unconventional feed resources are abundant and diverse. These include plant-based feed ingredients, animal-based feed ingredients, recycled waste resources, and single-cell proteins. Common plant-based unconventional ingredients include:

(1) Crop residues such as wheat and corn stalks, husks, potato vines, and peanut vines.

(2) Forestry by-products like leaves, seeds, young branches, and wood processing residues.

(3) Brewery and fermentation residues, e.g., distillers' grains, soy sauce lees, vinegar lees, corn starch residues, fruit residues, citric acid residue, and sugar cane pulp.

(4) Plant-based meal and cake, primarily peanut cake and cottonseed meal.

(5) Algae like kelp and seaweed.

Animal-based unconventional feed resources include blood meal, hoof and feather meal, meat and bone meal, silkworm pupae, earthworms, fish processing by-products, and insect-based ingredients. Recycled manure resources cover pig, rabbit, cattle, broiler, and layer chicken manure. Single-cell protein is primarily represented by yeast powder.

1.3 Characteristics of Unconventional Feed Ingredients

(1) Lower nutritional value with imbalanced nutrients.

(2) Presence of anti-nutritional factors or toxins, requiring treatment or restricted use.

(3) Poor palatability, leading to lower feeding value.

(4) Significant variability in nutrient content, with quality affected by origin, processing, and storage.

(5) Inaccurate nutritional evaluation and lack of reliable feed databases, complicating ration formulation.

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