§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of the feed for sheep, dairy cows and beef cattle, respectively, is accounted for by grass or hay and by cereals.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe NEDO Paper "Agriculture in the 1980s" estimated that some 82 per cent. of the energy requirements of ruminants was supplied from grass and forage. Of the 18 per cent. supplied by concentrated feeds, cereals accounts for some 60 to 80 per cent.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1970 the estimated quantity of wheat and barley, respectively, grown for use on the farm as feedingstuffs and the quantity sold in (a) intervention/price support and (b) on the open market.
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§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithInformation on the quantities of wheat and barley grown for use on the farm as feeding stuffs and the quantities sold on the open market is given in my Department's annual publication "Output and Utilisation of Farm Produce in the United Kingdom". Copies are available in the Library.
There were no sales of United Kingdom wheat and barley into intervention before 1978; sales for the years 1978 to 1981 were as follows:
(tonnes) Wheat Barley 1978 — 22,279 1979 309 106 1980 92,367 533,019 1981 42,264 536,501
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much soya and maize is used in the United Kingdom for feeding stuffs; and how its animal food value compares with barley and common wheat.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe quantities of soya bean meal and maize used for animal feeding stuffs in the United Kingdom in 1980, the latest year for which information is available, were 1.55 million tonnes and 1.07 million tonnes respectively. Typical chemical analyses and estimated nutritive values are as follows:
Soya bean meal maize barley wheat Chemical composition (Per cent.) crude protein 45.3 8.4 9.3 10.7 lysine 2.94 0.26 0.35 0.31 cystine and methionine 1.35 0.29 0.34 0.39 crude fibre 5.2 2.1 4.6 2.2 oil 1.5 3.6 1.5 1.6 carbohydrates 32 .4 70.8 68.4 69.7 Nutritive value (megajoules/kg) metabolisable energy (ruminants)* 12.3 14.2 13.7 14.0 metabolisable energy (poultry) 9.3 13.2 11.1 12.2 digestible energy (pigs) 13.6 14.9 13.2 14.3 * calculated per kg of dry matter Soya bean meal contains far more protein than cereals and is used primarily as a source of protein and amino acids. So far as amino acid balance is concerned, it is deficient in cystine and methonine relative to lysine. Its fibre content and oil content are comparable to those of barley. The carbohydrate content is reduced by the high protein content, and its energy value is below that of cereals, particularly for poultry.
Since maize contains somewhat less fibre and protein than wheat and barley and more oil, it has a higher energy value than those grains. Its amino acid balance is similar but reflects the lower protein content.