POINTERS TO PROFITABILITY

摘要

The costs of raw materials for finished feeds are on the ebb as world production of grains and oilseeds, itself a response to sky-high prices, approaches record levels. Successive forecasts of production during the 2014-15 crop year have been steadilyincreasing and estimates of the level of inventories of grains and oilseeds relative to consumption are rising sharply. As a result, spot and futures values of the raw materials that constitute the largest share of the livestock feed industry's cost basis have been falling sharply and opened up the opportunity for substantial reductions in the delivered price of livestock feed. Roger Dean has been analysing the prospects and warns that current pressures in the market for livestock products such as milkmay drive down the prices of finished feed further than compounders might think appropriate.