Australasian Milling Conference

FEED GRAINS ARE A GROWING AND SIGNIFICANT MARKET Livestock industries are a major market for grains on Australia’s east coast and a significant market for grain exports from WA and SA. Hafi and Connell (2003) have estimated that 80% of the annual demand for nearly 9 mmt of feed grains (cereals, oilseeds and pulses) is from livestock industries in the eastern states. An analysis of this demand is shown in Figure 1 and suggests that the current usage is shared almost equally between ruminant animals (feedlot cattle and dairy cows) and non-ruminant animals (pigs and poultry). The demand for feed grains is increasing and within 5 years is expected to exceed 10.5 mmt (8.4 mmt cereal grain). During this time it is expected the increase in demand will be greater for ruminants than for non-ruminants and in 2007 there will be more than 5 mmt feed grain used by the feedlot cattle and dairy industries alone. In their ABARE report, Hafi and Connell (2003) estimated that in 2003 our national production of cereal grains that appeared to be for feed markets was 18 mmt (of which nearly 60% was wheat). More than half of this was subsequently exported from WA and SA.