Stock feed is defined as food for livestock. When having and managing a farm, the health of the animals from which you are going to get products such as meat and milk is critical. Part of the animals' health is the food that they consume. It is essential to choose the right stock feed based on the age of the animals or other conditions. In the variety of stock feed, there are a few things that you should not use. This includes food scraps and waste from kitchens, hotels, food retailers, cooking oil, blood, bones or meat derived from other animals.

Meat

Meat is never something good for animals that are naturally designed to process only herbs and plants. Not only is it not a good stock feed because their organs cannot handle processing it but also because the meat contains viruses that cause devastating diseases, which, for the most part, spread and contaminate every animal. If you are not sure whether food stock of plant nature has been in contact with meat or meat-derived products, you should not feed it to livestock. In Australia, it is actually illegal to feed meat to livestock such as pigs.

Chemicals, Heavy Metals And Medications

Feeding livestock with stock feed that contains chemicals, heavy metals and/or various medications is very dangerous. This type of stock feed can cause diseases and death to the animals and a huge overall loss to the farm. This is why it is critical to check all the food labels before feeding it to the animals. Even in the cases where the heavy metals, chemicals or medications pass without noticing any changes in the organs of the animals, they can spread to the people that consume their meat or dairy products.

Rules And Regulations

In the states of  Australia, there are in power several rules and regulations that have the aim to prevent the spread of diseases among livestock and people. These regulations include the control of the standards of the stock feed. The stock feed is regularly controlled for its contents so that it can be safe. The regulations also include proper labelling and feeding restrictions. It is crucial that every stock feed product has an accurate label regarding its content to reduce the risk of feeding unsuitable food to the livestock. As mentioned before, food restrictions, such as those for meat, play a significant role in protecting the livestock.