Continuing its educational engagement in Vietnam, the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) Southeast Asia and Oceania (SEA&O) office partnered with the Animal Husbandry Association of Can Tho (AHA) to conduct a two-day workshop, Optimization of Farm Animal Feed Formulation from Available Ingredients in Vinh Long and Tra Vinh provinces, where the animal husbandry industry is large and still growing. Limited feed optimization and price risk management knowledge is restricting the industry’s growth potential at the same time the provinces are suffering from higher raw material prices. Chuin Shern Lee, USGC regional marketing manager for SEA&O; Dr. Budi Tangendjaja, USGC regional technical consultant; and principals from AHA aimed to help participants better understand the dynamics of feed formulation, feed quality control and nutrition requirements for poultry; achieve least-cost feed rations; become familiar with feed formulation software; and get a handle on the concept of price risk management so they can be more efficient in managing their operations. USGC reached out to participants directly involved in the animal husbandry industry, and 25 attendees, including college students majoring in agriculture or animal husbandry, lecturers, local traders, feed distributors and officials from the agriculture departments of the provinces sat in the discussions. During the price discovery training session, the software suggested distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) can be included from 5% to 15% for broiler feed depending on growth stage and can achieve overall savings in broiler production cost by 22,000 VND/kg ($0.94/kg).At the end of the training, all participants were able to formulate a complete poultry ration and determined that DDGS can be used effectively to reduce cost of poultry productions. Following a positive experience at the workshops, participants requested a follow-up training for other animal species, including aqua.
VIETNAM FEED FORMULATION TRAINING FOCUSES ON ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
