France. More corn has been added to compound feeds

Feed mills processed 1.18 thousand tons of wheat, down 6.2% from a year earlier, barley inclusion fell 11.7% to 286 thousand tons

French animal feeds contained more corn this year than in 2023. In the third quarter, 660 thousand tons of corn was used, 16.5% more than last year. Soybean cake was used 22.3% more at 743,000 tons, Agreste agricultural statistics show.

Feed mills processed 1.18 thousand tons of wheat, down 6.2% from a year earlier, barley inclusion fell 11.7% to 286 thousand tons, and use of rapeseed cake fell 4.7% to 596 thousand tons. These figures reflect the extremely low wheat and barley yields in the country. For the main crop, soft wheat, Agreste recorded the lowest production level in more than 40 years.

Total animal feed production in France remained more or less stable in the third quarter with a slight increase of 1% to 4.557 million tons in 2024.

Of this total production,

• 1.175 million tons was attributable to cattle feed production,
• 1.042 million tons for swine feed production
• 1.993 million tons was for poultry feed production, with a particularly large increase in duck feed production.

However, the data also show that total compound feed production in France was lower in every month this year compared to 2023, with the exception of July.

The average price of compound feed was 7.5% lower in Q3 2024. Soybean cake prices were 16.4% lower and barley prices were 12.8% lower than the same period last year.

Tags: corn, France, compound feed