Our last stop on my last field trip to Ethiopia was the feed processing plant in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region. We went to a site where farmer's union have a fertilizer factory and since recently a feed processing plant, that right now is still a temporary construction.
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| raw material |
The processing plant stores all raw material. Oil seed cake, mainly sunflower,
nug and sesame seed cake that are source from Amhara as well as cotton seed cake that is sourced from Tigray. The maize bran is local when available but also coming from Oromia. In principle they have the same ingredients that the feed retailer in Atbsi. In addition to that, they would also have lime.
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| The final product |
They have been trained to do the right mixures for fattening cows and for dairy cows. There is no specific mix for sheep. Different oil seed cake have different nutritional values. Therefore each batch that arrives has been tested for its content and the mixing recipe adjusted consequently.
Because it is a union, orders come in through cooperative. Feed is then delivered to these cooperative, where the farmer can go and pick his order. Therefore, the feed processing plant does not know to how many farmers they deliver. There is also one big ranch that directly sources from them.
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| the quality of oil seed cake is checked in a lab before acquisition |
So finally, this feed processing plant is mixing the same ingredients than the feed retailer. The only difference is that the concentrate from the processing plant has been mixed with the right ratios, providing optimal energy to the animal. It is therefore a guaranteed quality.
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