THE Department of Agriculture has indicated to the Irish Grain and Feed Association that it may require its members to have separate plants if they wish to supply pig and poultry food and also cattle feed to farmers.
Meat and bonemeal from rendered animals may be fed to pigs and poultry, but have been banned from cattle feed since 1990. But the Department fears contamination of cattle feed if the same factory supplies both trades. Yesterday the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, made his views on the matter known at a meeting with the IGFA in Dublin to discuss the animal feed issue.
The feed compounders are coming under increasing pressure to list every ingredient in cattle feed, but to date most of the compounders feel that the 15 categories listed in an EU directive governing the trade are sufficient. Meat and bonemeal, which are thought to have been the cause of BSE in Britain when infected sheep brain was fed to cattle, can be described as "animal or land products" under the EU directive.
The Department is attempting to bring in new legislation which will force the trade to specify each individual ingredient of animal feed so farmers will know that they are not feeding meat and bonemeal to their cattle.