Feed Wheat

Compound feed grade, bulk vessel, no milling premium

Feed wheat is the same grain sold on entirely different criteria, and understanding that is where the money is. A feed compounder is buying metabolisable energy and bulk density, not loaf volume, so the falling number that governs milling value is irrelevant — sprouted wheat that a miller must reject feeds an animal perfectly well. What matters is test weight, typically 72 kg/hl and up, because it drives starch density and therefore energy per tonne; moisture at 14% maximum for storage stability; and freedom from mycotoxins, which is the one specification where feed is stricter in practice than milling because DON and zearalenone hit monogastric performance hard. Protein at 10–11% is a bonus rather than a target, since the ration's protein comes from soymeal.

The commercial point is the discount. Feed wheat trades meaningfully below milling wheat, and the gap widens in a poor harvest when downgraded milling parcels flood the feed market — which is exactly when a buyer with feed-grade tolerance should be in the market. Buyers are compound feed mills, integrated poultry and pig operations, and ethanol distilleries where wheat competes directly with maize on starch price. The substitution against maize is the number to model: wheat generally carries slightly more protein and slightly less energy, so rations are reformulated rather than swapped one-for-one. CBIL brokers feed wheat on GAFTA terms with SGS certification of test weight, moisture, admixture and mycotoxins at load port, in bulk parcels from Black Sea, EU and Australian origins. Send your minimum test weight, your mycotoxin limits and your discharge port.