Cargills Launch Feed Assurance

STRAIGHTS feeds can now be bought with an assurance certificate to meet standards required by milk buyers, according to Cargill.

Speaking at a London press briefing on Thursday, its feed and grain marketing manager Martin Douglas said that while 90% of compound feeds already came under UKASTAs UFAS scheme, buying assured straights has posed problems.

But now the company has altered its storage, quality control and delivery systems to enable traceability and transparency.

Under the scheme producers will receive an assurance
certificate for each load – which includes store identification, country of origin and boat, added Cargills Richard Johnston.

In addition each days output from the store will be analysed to provide nutritional information which will allow accurate rationing.

While this should allow producers to receive assurance bonuses worth 0.5p a litre in some cases, straights prices will increase by about 5%.