Feed Use and Feed Conversion Ratios for Livestock in the Member Countries of the European Community: A Summary of Currently Available Data

The existence of a common policy on agriculture and a common external tariff suggests a much greater degree of homogeneity in feed use and feed conversion ratios among member EC countries than is in fact the case. No systematic analysis of the methods of livestock production and feeding has yet been undertaken at the Community level. The available national data on feed use vary considerably in the quality and in the detail of their presentation. Information of feed conversion ratios is also quite variable, both as between countries and as between types of livestock. As far as future feed use is concerned, the cyclical nature of hog and poultry markets, in which the system of common support prices plays relatively little direct part, will continue to affect year to year demand for compound feeds. Since the prices of milk and beef are subject to direct market support, long-run supply of these products and consequently feed demand will be influenced to a much greater extent by decisions taken by the Community's Council of Agricultural Ministers. Absolute improvements in feed conversion ratios for intensively reared stock are, baring an unforeseen technical or genetic breakthrough, unlikely to equal those achieved over the past decade.