AS THE price of feed grain remains high about $10 a tonne to $15/t above this time last year, and seasons across the country continue to be dry, producers are looking for alternatives when it comes to stock feed.
By-products used for livestock now include everything from cotton seed, grape mark, almond hulls and citrus pulp to holmany, and copra according to Narrabri nutritionist Gary Morrison, Nutra-mix.
Mr Morrison said with grain prices well above $200/t, producers were cutting back on the amount fed to livestock, by integrating other products.
"These are the biggest things now, with grain as expensive as it is people will be looking for every alternative there is," he said.
One of these alternatives is Copra meal - a by-product of coconut - getting fed in dry licks to cattle, sheep, horses and alpacas.
"It's 24 per cent protein and its energy value is on par with corn and grains if not higher," Mr Morrison said.
"It's not highly lignified and so is used as a mix with grains and other feeds."
While Copra meal currently cost more than feed grain, the increased nutritional value and palatability make it an effective alternative.
University of New England animal physiologist and nutritionist Mark Barnett, said grape marc as a dietary supplement for livestock was shown to reduce methane emissions, and was linked to increases in liveweight gain.
"Grape marc is a terrific waste product and quick way to reduce methane emissions," he said.
"Rules and regulations that limit some of the logistics and the cost of getting it to a producer are the issue.
"A processor in between the supermarket and the farm gate is what you need to break it down into a meal and a lot of it is grain-based anyway."
Food waste from supermarkets being converted into a usable feed supplement for livestock has long been in the back of the minds of many in the industry, but it has some fundamental hurdles to overcome.
If you could get waste from the supermarket into a meal form then it would become easier to transport, because freight costs increased the further north it went, Mr Barnett said.
"Grain becomes too expensive and if we could get an affordable outcome for reusing supermarket waste it should be done."
Mr Morrison said the problem with getting the waste out of big supermarkets was that most larger cattle feeders were a fair distance from these places.
"We are limited with transport and the costs of it... anything that is perishable will hold big water contents," he said.
"The freight would be a cruncher and drying it out as dry matter would be the next one."
Edward Meysztowicz started Branin Pty Ltd - a company that unpacks food waste so it is easier for the farmer to feed out -11 years ago.
Branin uses bakery waste, or bread, to make a shredded bulk product that can be sent to farms in grain tippers.
He supplies the beef and dairy industry in an arc from Mount Gambier, South?Australia, to the Riverina, and down through Victoria to Tasmania.
The cost of the shredded bakery product is about 30 per cent less than the cost of grain.
"It's stored in bunkers typically like silage, and will keep best on a cement floor," he said.
"It's as good as hard prime wheat with a 13.5 ME and 15pc protein.
"I started out with no clue, I would go to sales with a bucket of feed and stand in the yards talking to farmers, and learnt from them the need for my product and its value."
Mr Meysztowicz said he had looked into using the food waste from large retail supermarkets and using the waste such as vegetables, fruit and even dairy as a feed product for livestock.
"The waste to landfill that could be reused as a feed supplement in times when the seasons are tough could be a saver for producers."
Mr Meysztowicz wants to commission a sugar cane mill to process packaged fruit and vegetables.
"City waste turned into livestockfeed that turns back into city food is the future."
