USSEC Provides Technical Assistance to Livestock Producers in Mexico
- Category:
- Animal Utilization
- General News
USSEC recently provided technical assistance to livestock producers in the states of San Luis Potosi and Jalisco, Mexico.
USSEC technicians, Carlos Campabadal and Carlos Espinosa, visited VALI feed mill in San Luis Potosi. VALI produces all types of feeds and also sells roasted and extruder full fat soybean meal (FFSBM), purchasing between 4,000 to 5,000 metric tons (MT) of U.S. soybean meal. During this visit, discussions were related to feed production, especially in the area of roasted and extruder FFSBM, including the nutritional differences between these two products, their nutritional value, and the methodology to evaluate the processing effect.
In Jalisco, the consultants visited Forrajes Mendez. This feed mill produces all types of feeds (2,000 MT/month) and sells feed ingredients (5,000 MT/month) to producers that make their own feed. They buy between 1,500 to 2,000 MT of U.S. soybean meal. Mr. Campadabal and Mr. Espinosa visited the storage area to evaluate the quality of the feed ingredients and to review the process to produce the feed.
The next visit was to Tinajeros Dairy Farm, which is known for its Holstein dairy cows. This farm has a forage program, and the USSEC consultants made some recommendations about it and also about the use of U.S. soybean bypass protein in their rations.
Next up was Forrajes Mercado, a feed mill that sells 3,000 MT of feed of different species and feed ingredients. They purchase 1,500 to 2,000 MT of U.S. soybean meal. The feed mill was visited and USSEC reviewed the quality of the feed ingredient, finding that the soybean meal was of good quality. The consultants saw feed production, reviewed the particle size of the feeds, and discussed the quality of the U.S. soybean, the methodology to evaluate this product.
The last visit was to a beef cattle feedlot, La Mezquitera, which has 300 cattle of different breeds. The cattle’s diet utilizes U.S. soybean meal as a source of protein, which is not common in feedlot cattle. USSEC provided several nutritional and management recommendations to improve performance.