And of the two-thirds, the Wagu cattle industry uses about 70 per cent with dairy, hogs and other livestock using the remainder. As a result, feed barley import demand is inelastic. Consumers prefer the white, firm marbling that results from barley as opposed to a ration of all corn that produces yellow and soft marbling. The remaining one-third of imported feed barley is processed by feed manufacturers and consumed as compound feed by livestock. Japan typically consumes about 0.5 to 0.6 Mt of feed barley as compound feed annually.
Barley accounts for only about two per cent of total compound feed ingredients.
The major feed stuffs are corn, soybean meal and sorghum. Total coarse grain supplies are expected to decrease only slightly to 32.5 Mt due to higher carry-in stocks. Hog numbers are expected to continue to expand in 1997-98. Feed use by cattle is expected to be similar to 1996-97. Total coarse grain exports are expected to be 5.6 Mt, similar to 1996-97.