Global feed supply and demand

Abstract

As governments around the world have mandated the use of corn, sorghum, wheat, soybean oil and rapeseed oil to produce biofuel, the prices of these commodities have become correlated with the price of petroleum. Use of biofuel limits dependence on imported petroleum and also reduces emissions of greenhouse gases as these fuels are renewable. Meanwhile, the overall demand for these crops for food and feed continues to rise with increasing global population and affluence. World population is expected to increase from 7 to 9 billion people by 2050. To date, agricultural production has kept pace with demand. Plantings and yields have increased substantially over the past 50 years in most regions of the world. Corn yields in the USA increased from 2 mt/ha/yr in 1950 to more than 10 mt/ha/yr in 2009. Traditional genetic improvement, irrigation, use of fertilizers and chemicals, farming practices and genetic modification have all worked in tandem to improve yields. About one-third of corn produced in the USA is currently converted to ethanol; the remainder is used as domestic and international animal feed and for corn sugar production. The EU has mandated that 10% of energy used for transportation will be achieved from agriculture by 2020. Grain and oilseed consumption for animal feed continue to increase every year. Prices for energy-rich feed grains will likely continue to increase in the future. Feed conversion efficiency has improved with advances in animal genetics and ingredient processing. Rapid nutrient measurement techniques using near infra-red reflectance spectrometry and net energy diet formulation promise to further enhance efficiency.