Farm animals need high-quality feed to ensure their wellbeing. Good quality animal feed ensures the animals get all the nutrients they need to stave off disease, promote reproduction and overall health.
Farm animals need high-quality feed to ensure their wellbeing. Good quality animal feed ensures the animals get all the nutrients they need to stave off disease, promote reproduction and overall health.
With so many feed options out there for farmers, it’s hard to know what the quality options are and where they can be sourced from.
When farmers buy feed that’s accredited by NZFMA’s FeedSafeNZ program, they can be confident that it’s high quality feed that promotes the health and wellbeing of their animals. In this article we highlight some of the benefits that come with getting animal feed that has the FeedSafeNZ tick.
Improved nutrition for farm animals
You are what you eat and that’s certainly true for farm animals too. Sub-standard feed for livestock can lead to malnutrition, disease, poor wellbeing and reproduction issues.
FeedSafeNZ ensures feed manufacturers and blenders meet minimum standards for the ingredients they use when creating animal feed. This means using ingredients which are most nourishing for the farm animals, giving them the nutrients they need to thrive.
Reducing the risk of contamination
Foodborne diseases can come from giving animals poor-quality feed. These include salmonella, E coli, foot and mouth disease and avian influenza amongst many others. Not only are they harmful to animals once they enter the bloodstream, but these diseases then pass on to humans through the food chain eventually.
FeedSafeNZ accredited feed helps to remove the risk from feed-derived diseases by making sure manufacturers follow good hygiene practices such as ensuring clean facilities and sanitation and pest control. This helps reduce the chance of contamination during feed production.
Help with understanding the additives
Many animal feed products include additives. FeedSafeNZ ensures these are correctly identified and labeled in the packaging, and make sure that any additives being added are for the wellbeing of the animal.
Reduced mislabeling and misidentification of animal feeds
New Zealand feed manufacturers are sourcing increasingly diversified ingredients, from various locations around the world. This increases the risk of purchasing mislabeled raw materials which are then added to animal feed. This risk is especially heightened with non-grain ingredients.
FeedSafeNZ, along with our partners AsureQuality, regularly carry out audits to check the labeling of materials sourced for animal feed production, determining risks by country of origin, label and supplier.
Improved human food
Better quality animal feed means better quality human food too. Livestock well being has a direct link with the quality of produce we derive from them.
Well-nourished, happy healthy animals produce a greater yield for farmers. FeedSafeNZ sets standards to ensure traceability and quality across the entire food chain.
For more information on our animal feed accreditation programme, visit the About FeedSafeNZ page.
