Current situation of ruminant feed market, many feed giants accelerate to develop ruminant feed market

1、 Current situation of ruminant feed market

In recent years, China's feed industry has gradually entered a stable development period. On the one hand, the growth rate of feed output has declined, while the revenue of enterprises in the industry has fluctuated. At the same time, some enterprises have begun to target the emerging market of animal feed. There are many kinds of ruminant feeds in China, which come from a wide range of sources, including not only concentrated feeds commonly used by monogastric animals, but also various green roughages and agricultural and sideline products. At present, the scale and trend of pig breeding and poultry breeding in China is stronger than that of ruminant breeding, and the scale and trend of dairy cattle breeding within ruminant is stronger than that of beef cattle breeding, so the market development space of ruminant feed is large. According to the data of China Feed Industry Association, the output of domestic ruminant feed has increased rapidly since 2017, reaching 13.19 million tons in 2020, an increase of 18% year on year, far exceeding the average level of the feed industry.

At present, domestic feed is mainly meat and poultry feed and pig feed, and ruminant feed only accounts for 5.22% of domestic animal feed output. Because livestock such as cattle and sheep are mainly operated on a small scale by families, and the degree of scale and specialization is low, except for some large farms, most farmers' breeding technology is at a relatively backward level. There is a shortage of professional and technical personnel in every link from breeding, reproduction, feeding, production management to safety production. It is difficult to prevent and control epidemics. The feed formula is unscientific. Scientific feeding and standardized management have not been formed yet. Feeding standards and nutritional parameters of conventional feed need to be formulated and promoted. In particular, the scale and trend of pig breeding and poultry breeding in China is stronger than that of ruminant (cow, beef cattle, mutton sheep, etc.) breeding industry, and the scale and trend of dairy cattle breeding within ruminant is stronger than that of beef cattle breeding. The main reason is that the profit of pig large-scale breeding is higher, compared with the low level of beef cattle and mutton sheep large-scale breeding, the demand for special ruminant feed is not high.

2、 Increased consumption of beef and mutton drives market demand

From the consumer side, there is still room for improvement in the per capita consumption of meat, poultry, eggs and milk in China. With the increasing demand for nutritional balance, the relative proportion of beef, mutton, aquatic products, poultry and dairy products in China will tend to rise. From 2012 to 2020, the proportion of beef and mutton in China's meat production increased from 12% to more than 15%, mainly due to the increase of protein consumption, such as beef and mutton, dairy products, which previously accounted for a relatively low proportion, in addition to the reduction of pork production caused by the African swine plague. The proportion of beef and mutton consumption in developed countries in Europe and America accounts for more than 20% of the meat consumption, compared with about 14% in China. The balance of the meat variety structure in China is low, the proportion of pork in the whole meat is relatively high, and the proportion of beef and mutton is relatively low. With the growth of the per capita consumption of beef, mutton and dairy products in China, and the increase of the proportion of ruminant feeding and large-scale breeding, ruminant feed in China has a large space for development in the future.

3、 Competition pattern of ruminant feed market

In the past, traditional large-scale feed enterprises laid out their main strategic resources in pig feed and poultry feed, which led to insufficient investment in research and development and technical services in ruminant feed categories. Therefore, the overall competition pattern of ruminant feed industry is relatively decentralized. According to the relevant data of China Feed Industry Association, the top ten ruminant feed (commercial feed) enterprises in China in 2020 are: Hefeng Pasture Industry, Xinjiang Taikun, Changchun Borui, Tiankang Biology, Beijing Jiuzhou Dadi, Dabei Nong, Beijing Yonghe Rongda, Jiangsu Bodu Farming, Inner Mongolia Zhengda, Baotou Beichen Feed. Compared with the pig and poultry breeding industry, the ruminant breeding industry is closer to the aquaculture industry in terms of industrial characteristics, showing a low degree of standardization and scale, a weak accumulation of breeding and nutrition technical parameters, and a large demand for personalized and systematic breeding technical services.

In the past, the ruminant feed market was not large and the individual demand was obvious. Therefore, the domestic traditional large-scale feed enterprises were mainly located in the pig feed and poultry feed sectors, with less involvement in the ruminant feed sector. The market share of ruminant feed was more divided by a large number of small and medium-sized feed enterprises. Compared with the feed market, ruminant feed is more decentralized. At present, Haida Group and New Hope are seeking to quickly open the ruminant feed market.

4、 Sunflower seed cake/meal will become a new raw material for ruminant feed

Sunflower cake has good palatability to ruminant livestock and is a good protein raw material. The feeding value of dairy cattle is high, and the effect of sheller is equal to that of soybean cake, but too much pressed cake with high fat content is easy to cause milk fat and body fat to become soft. Sunflower cake and meal are also good feedstuffs for beef cattle and sheep. They have the same value as cottonseed cake in terms of weight gain and feed efficiency. Sunflower cake contains 4% crude protein, 2% crude fat, 50% crude fiber and 2.5% crude ash, which can be used as coarse feed for cattle and sheep. The sunflower tray is also a good source of roughage. The methionine content of sunflower cake is higher than that of soybean meal, while the lysine content of sunflower cake is lower than that of soybean meal. The hulled sunflower seed contains 35%~38% crude protein, the shelled sunflower seed contains 22%~26% crude protein, and the methionine content is 1.6% higher than that of soybean meal, much higher than that of soybean meal. In recent years, the output of sunflower seed oil in China has grown steadily, reaching 892000 tons in 2020. The increase of oil pressure pressing of sunflower seeds has made sunflower cake a new raw material in the field of ruminant feed.