Shrinkage losses at the feed mill often go unnoticed

Nutritionists, like me, when they formulate animal feeds, especially complete feeds for swine and poultry, seldom — if ever — look at the dry matter level of the feed. We assume all ingredients have the dry matter they need based on good manufacturing practices and move on to more important matters.

So, it was logical for a junior nutritionist that I was training to assume that 2,000 pounds of mixed feed would produce 2,000 pounds of pellets. He was suspicious when we ended with less weight in pellets, but he was 100% certain he had weighed all ingredients correctly – and in fact he had. So, what happened? The answer is simple: shrinkage. Let me explain.