Stock Control of Feed Ingredients and Ordering Feed Ingredients

Any feedlot’s ultimate goal is to be profitable and sustainable. As with any other business, times will come when the market price places pressure on the profitability of the enterprise. This is a naturally occurring cycle and similar to nature this process eliminates the weak and identifies the strong.

A strong feedlot is a feedlot that keeps control of all the various elements that can have an effect on the quality of the cattle and the ultimate profitability of the enterprise. One of these factors that are a necessary but large expense for the feedlot is obtaining the ingredients used on the feed blends. As we discussed earlier these ingredients consist of a variety of elements from roughages to concentrates to additives such as vitamins and minerals.

In order to ensure that the feedlot does not undergo any unnecessary expenses and thereby negatively influencing profitability, strict control should be kept of these ingredients. The only effective manner in which to control the levels of the ingredients is to employ a well detailed and structured recordkeeping system where all the ingredients obtained and where the ingredients were used can be captured.

A stock control system can help to ensure that the profitability of the feedlot improves and that the right ingredients are available when needed. To effectively develop a stock control system a feedlot manager should determine minimum and maximum stock control levels for each separate ingredient.

The setting of minimum and maximum stock levels helps in maintaining the quality of the stock as well as ensuring that the necessary ingredients are available for use when needed. Over ordering of stock can lead to ingredients deteriorating before use thereby leading to stock having to be destroyed or discarded. On the other hand ordering of stock can lead to ingredients not being available for blending when needed. The stock should be ordered once the stock level reaches the minimum level. The amount of stock ordered will be depended on the maximum stock level. So once the stock reaches the minimum level enough stock should be ordered to bring the stock levels up to the set maximum level.

Ensuring that the right ingredients are available at the right time in the right amounts goes a long way to ensuring that the feedlot can maintain its profitability.